NO. I 



CH UAN MIAO SONGS AND STORIES — GRAHAM 



249 



can ascend to heaven. You also tell the hawk 

 on the cliff tliat in his nest there are three 

 bunches of lin tzu ts'ao.-^ He must throw 

 these out before he can ascend to heaven." 

 He heard all of Ye Seo's words, and Ye Seo 

 was not to be seen. Alas, he had not in- 

 structed the orphan in regard to the orphan's 

 own affairs. The orphan came back very 

 sorrowfully. 



When he returned, he told them as Ye Seo 

 had said. Because at that time nobody else 

 excepting him understood, they requested him 

 to do them a favor by taking down the things, 

 and they gave them to him. He then brought 

 these precious things back with him. He used 

 the gold and silver for travel expenses, and 

 gave the pearls to the emperor, and used the 

 grass to heal the queen, and the queen re- 

 covered. The emperor then made him a 

 prime minister. He then composed this song 

 to commemorate the graciousness of Ye Seo 

 because of which he had become so rich. 



The Fame of an Orphan's Beautiful Wife 

 Spread to the Capital. Later the Orphan 

 Became Emperor (443) 



The Miao orphan and the star woman be- 

 came very loving husband and wife. But the 

 Chinese, since he could not get the woman, 

 drew a very beautiful picture of her and gave 

 it to the emperor. After the emperor got the 

 picture, he determined during a dream that 

 he would get this woman. Then the emperor 

 issued a decree ordering die official who had 

 charge of his affairs (chamberlain?) to go 

 abroad with him. 



One day they arrived at the home of the 

 Miao. Then the emperor ordered the orphan 

 to quickly give his wife to him. The Miao 

 woman in the house replied to the emperor, 

 "Will the emperor please look carefully, and 

 I will come out?" Then the woman merely 

 reached one finger out. The emperor saw that 

 her finger was slender, and that on her finger 

 she wore the finest gold and silver rings. 

 Then the emperor wanted diis woman very 

 badly. He desired her so badly that he fell 

 over backward. The servants of the emperor 

 lifted him up. Then the emperor thought 

 out a trick and said to the Miao orphan, 

 "Little Miao, I want your wife to make a table 

 for me. On the table she is to place seven 

 pairs of chopsticks and seven plates. In the 

 plates she is to put nine kinds of vegetables. 

 Tell her to bring them at once or she will be 

 my wife, the woman that I use." 



The Miao told his wife. His wife said, 



-■* An herb enabling people to live forever. 



"That is not hard. I will go and do it." Then 

 in her garden she picked a leek plant. She 

 put this vegetable into a lacquered wooden 

 dish. Then she took a pair of black lacquered 

 chopsticks and put them on the table, and 

 invited the emperor to come and eat. 



When the emperor saw that she was such 

 a clever woman, he did not dare to trick her. 

 The emperor then said to the Miao orphan, 

 "I am going to trade my queen to you." The 

 orphan told his wife and talked the matter 

 over with her. His wife said, "This is well. 

 Because I came to save you, I am not your 

 wife forever." Then he traded with the 

 emperor. 



But when the emperor got this woman he 

 did not want to be emperor, but took off his 

 clothing and hat and gave them to the orphan. 

 Then he told the Miao orphan to ride in the 

 emperor's sedan chair. 



The wife of the Miao said to him, "Now 

 I am already pregnant. If in the future it is 

 a girl, I will not come. If I give birth to a 

 boy, I will come and live with you. But you 

 are unwilling in your heart. When you have 

 gone a little way you can turn around and 

 look at me. Then you will be willing." 



They all started off, men, horses, and sedan 

 chairs. When they had gone a while the or- 

 phan said, "My shoes are lost. I will go back 

 and get them." Then he again went back 

 into his house and looked. He saw that the 

 emperor was dead and was as stiff as a hard 

 club. The woman was not to be seen. Then 

 he did not worry about his wife, but entered 

 the palace to be emperor. But before a year 

 passed, that woman gave birth to a son. But 

 the woman could not come down to earth. 

 So she took a rope and let the boy down near 

 the home of a Miao family where there was 

 no son, on top of a tree in a magpie's nest. 



Next morning the two old people got up 

 and heard a child crying in a magpie's nest 

 on top of a tree. Then the two old people got 

 somebody to climb the tree and carry the 

 child down. The two old people took the 

 child home. 



The child grasped in his hand a piece of 

 embroidered silk. The two old people cared 

 for him until he grew up. 



The children in his neighborhood were in 

 the habit of troubling him. They called him 

 a child without parents. He knew that these 

 words were unpleasant to hear and came back 

 and asked the two old people, "Why do 

 people tease me by saying I have no father 

 or mother?" Then the two old people told 

 him about his being found in a magpie's nest. 

 He then asked, "How can there be anybody 



