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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 123 



killed a fat buffalo." The emperor said, "I 

 see that today you have brought here a living 

 person. You are very friendly with him. 

 After this you must not bring outside people 

 here again.^- If you again bring one here, 

 I will drive even your family outside into 

 the living world." 



That night they two returned and the sister 

 asked, "How many buffaloes did you kill 

 today?" Her husband then said, "Don't men- 

 tion the killing of buffaloes. He even almost 

 fired me out of here." She said, "Thus even 

 sick people who live quietly are to be exe- 

 cuted. This is truly hard to manage." Her 

 husband said, "If people of the living world 

 are to avoid it, when they become ill they 

 should invite a person who makes two horns 

 of yellow paper and puts them on his head 

 and uses the blood of a rooster and sprinkles 

 it all around, and when the emperor orders 

 me to kill them, and I see those two horns 

 and the chicken blood, I will say 'I have al- 

 ready butchered. The blood has already dis- 

 colored my sword and even the water buffalo 

 head I have brought,' and then the person's 

 death can be avoided. Moreover, I will take 

 this and report to the emperor and he will 

 not order me to kill this person. You may 

 return now. Remember my words forever 

 and you will be able to substitute the imita- 

 tion head for good people." 



The do nun (Chinese tttan \ung) of the 

 Ch'uan Miao wears paper horns and sprinkles 

 chicken blood because of tliis legend. 



Why the Tuan Kung Beats the Table and 

 Shouts "T'ai, T'ai, T'ai," in Ceremonies 

 (142) 



Once a Miao saw a Chinese geomancer trav- 

 eling about everywhere and went and studied 

 the geomancer's doctrines and practices. After 

 the Miao had learned all the theories about 

 the earth, he went about everywhere to make 

 money practicing them. But his family was 

 very poor. He left his three sons in his home. 

 They were hungry. The three sons at the 

 time of the autumn harvest went out and saw 

 other people's corn. The third son wept and 

 stole an ear of corn belonging to somebody. 

 Then the two older brothers reproved him 

 saying, "Little brother, haven't you heard 

 people say that even if you starve to death 

 you must not steal? Can it be that when our 

 father goes to teach others to be good we 

 ought to be thieves?" Then they took the 

 ear of corn and put it down on the ground. 



82 This means living people from the outside 

 world of the living. 



Later their father had come home and the 

 diree brothers had grown a little larger. Their 

 farming was sufficient for their food and to 

 sell (enough to pay other expenses). They 

 saw that their father had become old and 

 they said to him, "If you travel over the whole 

 world and look over the earth for others (to 

 determine the jengshui and to find lucky 

 places for dwellings and burial), after all, 

 where will your grave be in the future?" The 

 father reproved them saying, "Do you broth- 

 ers want me to die?" They dared not ask 

 him further about it. 



Later their father said, "We have paid out 

 40,000 cash as earnest money for the rent of 

 this place. Later, when I die, use half of this 

 to buy hemp ropes and the other half for you 

 to eat. You then carry me out and where the 

 rope breaks, bury me there." 



After a few years the father died. They 

 greatly respected the words the father had 

 spoken to them, and went straight to buy 

 hemp ropes, and took the father's coffin and 

 started to carry it off. But the ropes did not 

 break easily, and they had nearly used up 

 their travel money. The two younger broth- 

 ers became impatient, but the older brother 

 would not stop and told them to carry the 

 coffin on. 



One day they came to a mountain pass and 

 the ropes all broke. They now did not have 

 left a bit of dieir travel money, so the three 

 brothers begged for food and buried their 

 father. 



When the father had been buried the three 

 brothers said, "We haven't a single thing left 

 in the world. We can separate here, and each 

 travel and learn a trade. Next year, on this 

 day, we will come back here and compare the 

 trade each one of us has learned." When they 

 were through speaking, the three brothers 

 wept and separated. 



Next year, on the same day, they all came 

 back to the grave of their father. The older 

 brother said, "I have learned to speak the 

 language of birds." The second oldest said, 

 "I have learned to fly in the air." The third 

 brother said that he had learned to heal 

 sickness. Each one of diem now had a trade. 



At that time the emperor had a daughter 

 who was ill. One day a bird accidently flew 

 there and sang. Jt said, "The emperor's 

 daughter is ill. If anybody goes and heals 

 her, the emperor will make him an official." 

 When the older brother heard this he said, 

 "Alas, we haven't anybody that can learn to 

 heal. If we could heal sickness, we could 

 become officials of the emperor." Then the 

 third (youngest) brother said, "Older brother. 



