NO. I 



CH UAN MIAO SONGS AND STORIES — GRAHAM 



245 



a golden stick. This he carried home, and 

 tiien he had food to eat. 



One day Ntseo Do Seo ^^ came riding a 

 horse to the back of his house. The orphan 

 said, "Please come in and smoke some tobacco 

 and drink some tea." Ntseo Do Seo said, 

 "Where have you any tobacco for you to 

 smoke?" and after he had said this he de- 

 parted. 



On another day Ntseo Do Seo again came 

 up behind his house. The orphan again in- 

 vited him to come in, but he did not come. 



On the third day Ntseo Do Seo came into 

 his house. Then the orphan said, "Do you 

 want to enter my golden door, or my silver 

 door?" Ntseo Do Seo said, "I am a rich man. 

 I want to enter the silver door." Then the 

 orphan asked him, "Do you want to sit on 

 a silver stool, or a golden one?" He said, 

 "A silver stool." The orphan carried a silver 

 stool for him to sit on, and when he sat down 

 on it he fell off. He could not sit down 

 until the orphan brought a wooden stool for 

 him to sit on. 



The orphan said to him, "Do you want to 

 smoke a big pipeful of tobacco, or a small 

 one?" He said, "A big pipeful." Then the 

 orphan brought a big pipeful of tobacco for 

 him. 



The orphan then said, "Do you want to 

 use a golden pipe, or a silver pipe?" He 

 replied, "I want to use a silver pipe." Then 

 the orphan gave him a golden pipe, and his 

 teeth broke off. After that he brought a 

 bamboo pipe for him to smoke with, and then 

 he could smoke. 



After that the orphan brought nine big 

 bowls of vegetables for him to eat. When he 

 had finished eating Ntseo Do Seo said to the 

 orphan, "You are a poor person. Why do 

 you have such good things?" Then the or- 

 phan told him about what had happened, and 

 then Ntseo Do Seo got upon his horse and 

 rode away. 



An Orphan Found a Flower Which Turned 

 Out To Be a Wife (308) 



Once there was a family. A tiger kept 

 coming and eating them until only an orphan 

 boy was left. He was in a pitiful condition. 

 He went and gathered dog manure to sell so 

 as to get food. 



One day he went and asked Ye Seo what 

 he should do in order to get a wife. Ye Seo 

 then said to him, "You cut wood and sell it, 

 and you will get a wife." Then he came 

 back and cut wood every day and sold it. 



1^ A flovi^er son who loves playing and dancing. 



One day he went by a big road to cut wood. 

 There was a large cave, and beside the cave 

 was a big flower which was beautiful. Then 

 he brought the flower home with him and 

 stuck it up inside the parlor. 



One day he went as usual to cut wood. 

 While he was gone that flower changed into 

 a very fine girl who cooked food for him, and 

 when it was done she set it on the table. 

 Then she changed back into a flower. 



When the orphan came back at night, he 

 saw the food spread out at home, and he 

 wondered greatly about it. Two or three days 

 in succession it was the same. Then he went 

 and asked Ye Seo. Ye Seo said to him, "I 

 told you to cut wood to sell and you would 

 get a wife. Probably you do not know you 

 got one. That flower is your wife." 



The orphan did not believe it, so Ye Seo 

 said to him, "If you don't believe it, you go 

 back home tomorrow and pretend you are 

 going to cut firewood. Then you hide and 

 watch her." 



When the orphan heard Ye Seo's words, 

 he did as he was told. He hid carefully, and 

 suddenly that flower changed into a girl and 

 came out. The woman was unable to change 

 into a flower, and she was his wife. Later, 

 after the orphan got a wife, he became rich 

 and made up this song to commemorate it. 



An Orphan Got a Home and Lost It, or A 

 Journey into the Lower World of Midgets 

 (322) 



In most ancient tmies there was an orphan. 

 He had neither clothing nor food. He lived 

 with a man named Je Nan L'eo.^^ Every 

 day he went to cut grass for the horses and 

 carried a bamboo pole on his shoulder to 

 carry the grass with. He carried the pole to 

 the pavilion whence the emperor looked at 

 the flowers. He sang a song saying, 



"Ndang Di, Ndang ndai. Ba 



Jiao De t'ai. 

 Ba t'o de la, ba jiao t'ai chii, 

 Ba jiao t'ai lai, 

 Gieu lii h'an tsai er men. 

 Ba jiao t'ai, ba giao t'o. 

 Ba jiao whan bi huang di 



lao ye da. 

 Yo, yo." 20 



1^ This L is probably the Welsh double 1. 



20 This seems to be a mixture of Miao and 

 Chinese expressions. The romanizations are not 

 according to die Wade system for the Chinese, 

 but as pronounced by the speaker in Szechwan 

 Chinese. The last sentence is apparendy Chinese 

 and means that ba jiao is greater than the aged 

 emperor. 



