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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 12 



do?" He replied "Uncle, how can such a 

 diing be possible?" 



Next morning the orphan prepared his 

 sword and his bows and arrows and actually 

 went forward and looked. He saw a beautiful 

 woman making embroidery in a cave. He 

 then took his sword in his hand and struck 

 down a bunch of leaves from a tree so that 

 they flew into the cave. The woman said, 

 "Why is this? Wait till I smell one of these 

 leaves." She then took up one of the leaves 

 and smelled it. She smelled the odor of a 

 sword and then looked up and saw the man 

 on the clii?. Then the two smiled and spoke 

 to each other. She said, "Gracious man, why 

 did you come here? You should hide lest my 

 pack of tigers see you." He remained there 

 three days, then arranged his bows and cross- 

 bows and shot all the tigers dead. The wo- 

 man then took her belt and threw it up to 

 him and welcomed him down. He lived with 

 her one night. The next day they gathered 

 up all the things in the cave and the two 

 went together to the home of his uncle, and 

 his uncle arranged a home for them. 



The following day the orphan went to plow 

 the field. Suddenly two small tigers came out 

 to him and said "Uncle (on the mother's 

 side), let's have a fight." He was afraid, but 

 his face did not change color. In his mind 

 he thought out a plan, and said to the striped 

 tigers "If you two eat me up, what good will 

 it do you? You will be tmable to display any 

 special ability, and besides you will not prove 

 yourselves good fellows." The tigers said, 

 "What do you want to do?" He said, "My 

 fists and palms (of hands) have been left 

 home. You'd better let me go home and bring 

 them, and then we can fight. Will that be 

 all right?" He again said, "I am afraid you 

 will eat my cow." The tigers said, "Never 

 fear, you can unfasten the cow's ropes and 

 tie us to trees and not release us until you 

 get back. Then we can fight a fair fight." He 

 immediately did as they said. 



He came home and prepared his ax and 

 went back to the striped tigers. The tigers 

 said, "Release us, if you please." He replied, 

 "Wait until I am through smoking and I will 

 release you." After he had said this he lifted 

 his ax and killed the two tigers. Then the 

 cow he used for plowing laughed until she 

 fell flat on the ground and even broke off her 

 teeth. This is the reason cattle have no upper 

 teeth. 



An Orphan Gets a Wife and Becomes Wealthv 

 (21) 



On the evening of the thirteenth day of the 

 twelfth moon, an orphan who had no rice 



with which to pass the new year, cold and 

 shivering, carried a small wine pitcher to ihc 

 village to buy wine with which to commem- 

 orate his parents. His feet moved quickly, 

 and he arrived beside the town. He went to 

 a silversmith. At this time the silversmith 

 was working silver, and suddenly a little silver 

 leaped into his wine pitcher. He carried it 

 upon the street and saw that he truly had a 

 lump of white silver. He then went and used 

 some silver to buy some meat and wine, 

 and also bought many firecrackers which he 

 brought home with which to celebrate the 

 new year. 



He set off the firecrackers with much noise. 

 His uncle heard that he was so happy, but he 

 himself sighed and said, "I am as rich as 

 this, but I do not dare to thus celebrate. How 

 can he do this?" He then secretly sent some- 

 body to investigate the reason for his nephew's 

 celebrating. The investigator went to the rear 

 of his nephew's home to listen, and the nephew 

 had just drunk a little wine and thanked the 

 wine pitcher saying, "Thank you, litde cup." 

 His words were heard by the investigator who 

 returned and reported to the uncle saying, "I 

 have it, his words tonight are probably because 

 he has found some silver." 



Next day the uncle sent somebody to call 

 his nephew and said, "My nephew, hadn't 

 you better marry a wife?" The nephew re- 

 plied, "I have no money. How can I marry 

 a wife?" The uncle said, "I'll use my money 

 and help you get married." And the uncle 

 got him a wife. 



The wife diought that he had really found 

 silver. But where did he really have any sil- 

 ver? The wife would not believe that he had 

 none. He merely did his farm work each day, 

 and his actions were not as though he had 

 any. But his wife sincerely believed that he 

 had silver. 



One day the orphan went out to work for 

 wages, and his wife watched him from be- 

 hind, and saw him urinate toward an opposite 

 cliff. When he had finished he pointed his 

 finger toward the cliff saying, "Silver, hide 

 yourself. Don't let anybody see you." His 

 wife thought, "Correct, correct. Wait until 

 he has gone, and I will go and look for the 

 silver." After this the wife went to the clif?, 

 looking everywhere. She slid to the middle 

 of the hill and found some white silver in 

 the large cliff. 



She said nothing and waited until evening. 

 When her husband had returned home, she 

 very happily said to him, "I will not deceive 

 you. Your silver I have already seen." Her 

 husband said, "What silver is diere?" His 

 wife said, "Isn't it true? Shall we two go 

 ahead and see it?" The husband said, "That 



