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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 



123 



without a father or mother? This is a strange 

 thing." Then he secretly ran and asked Ye 

 Seo. Ye See said, "How do you know diat 

 you have no father or mother?" He repHed, 

 "I was born in a magpie's nest. When I was 

 in the magpie's nest, I had a piece of em- 

 broidered silk in my hands. Now that em- 

 broidered silk cloth is still to be found. So 

 I have come to ask you." Ye Seo said to him, 

 "If you have this evidence, tomorrow you can 

 take it and go into the great mountain be- 

 hind your house. On the mountain is a large 

 pool. You wait in that place, and diere will 

 certainly be seven women who come to bathe. 

 Wait until they have finished bathing, and 

 you grab hold of the clothing and belt of the 

 last one who goes, and tell her to be your 

 mother. But when you call you take the 

 embroidered silk you formerly held in your 

 hands and show it to her. If you do not, I 

 am afraid that she will take a sword and cut 

 your head off." 



That day he came back home and asked 

 the two old people for that piece of- embroi- 

 dered silk. Next day he went up on the 

 mountain and waited. At noon there actually 

 came seven pretty women to bathe. He con- 

 cealed himself until they were through bath- 

 ing. When all had gone excepting one, he 

 seized her einbroidered pleated skirt. Then 

 the woman took a sharp sword from her 

 breast and was going to behead him. Then 

 the boy quickly took the piece of embroidered 

 silk out of his breast. A woman nearby saw 

 it and quickly prevented the other woman 

 from beheading him and shouted to the other, 

 "Sister, can't you recognize him? This is 

 your good fortune." Then tlie woman did 

 not dare to behead him and said to him, "My 

 small son, because you have grown up I could 

 not recognize you. Now I cannot return to 

 my mother Na Bo Tang. Come and I will 

 take you to your father. But your father is 

 now an emperor. He is far away from here. 

 Do you want to ride on a cloud, or walk?" 

 The son said, "We had better ride on a cloud." 

 Then she folded die boy under her armpit 

 and told him to close his eyes, and in a short 

 time they flew into the emperor's palace. 

 From this time the husband and his wife 

 were united, and the father and his son could 

 meet each other. That was truly good. 



A Star Married an Orphan. Her Son Became 

 a Great Person (494) 



In ancient times there was an orphan. His 

 father and mother had died when he was very 

 young. He went to live with his uncle and 

 his aunt. Every night they had him go and 



call the laborers. At night he would look up 

 at the sky and call out, "Head of the sky, 

 head of the sky, arise and save me." Suddenly 

 a star shone forth and fell down. Then an- 

 odier shone forth and passed over. Then the 

 star ran to him and lived with him one night. 



He called thus three times in succession. 

 One night the youngest of the seven sisters 

 (in the sky) came over and waited for him 

 beside the road. When he arrived there the 

 girl said, "Every night you call me. Tonight 

 I have come down to save you." She then 

 pushed him into the corner of the pigpen (to 

 warn him). 



Next day he returned to his uncle's home. 

 He constantly carried food for the girl to eat. 



One day his aunt saw him take food for 

 the girl to eat. She then said, "It looks like 

 diis son has led another family's daughter-in- 

 law here to live. Let us go and look a while." 



When she went and looked, she saw a very 

 good girl there making clothes. She then re- 

 turned and told her husband and said, "Your 

 nephew is too bad. We don't know whose 

 daughter he has gone and enticed here. Let 

 us drive him out and not let him live with 

 us." 



The pretty girl said to tlie orphan, "They 

 do not want us to live here. Let us go." Then 

 diey went to an aged forest on a great moun- 

 tain. He said, "I am a little hungry." The 

 girl said, "If you are hungry, you go and find 

 wood, and we will boil rice to eat." Then 

 he went and found wood and brought it. 

 The daughter took a grain of rice and boiled 

 it, and both of them had enough to eat. 



That night the girl took her skirt and sur- 

 rounded them, and diey slept inside. Then the 

 girl ran up to the top of the mountain and 

 whistled several times, and her brothers came 

 down and built a house for her. 



At dawn the orphan spoke. He said, "This 

 is the house of a Chinese." The girl said, 

 "It is ours. It does not belong to a Chinese. 

 This house was built by my older brothers 

 who came to help us by building it last night. 

 In our parlor I have prepared a bowl of syrup. 

 You can take it and give it as an expression 

 of thanks to them (her brothers)." 



He carried it outside the door and saw two 

 older brothers of his wife. He said, "Thank 

 you for building a house for us to live in last 

 night." Just as he said it the two older 

 brothers flew up into the sky. 



She said to him, "Today you go and invite 

 our landlord to eat dinner." He replied, "We 

 haven't anything at all to invite him with." 

 She said, "We have dinner. You must invite 

 him to come and eat a little." Again she said, 



