NO. I 



CH UAN MIAO SONGS AND STORIES — GRAHAM 



265 



poured out for the guests to drink. Seven 

 daughters-in-law have been burnt to death, 

 and in the eleventh moon on the fifteenth 

 day spirit money will be burnt. You are 

 invited to go and see it." 



Just about a second after the old man had 

 finished calling there stood on the edge of 

 a pool a small person who said, "Old man, 

 what are you saying?" The old man dien 

 told again as he had before about the enter- 

 taining of guests and the burning to death. 

 The old dragon said, "Is this so? It is truly 

 pitiful. Please come into my house to rest 

 awhile." 



The old man then entered the home with 

 the dragon. He saw that the house was built 

 very well. He lived there several days and 

 Lang Dao said, "I will not detain you. I will 

 give you two yellow vegetable leaves. Take 

 them home and make soup of them and eat 

 them." The old man then thanked him say- 

 ing, "I am unworthy today." In a moment 

 Lao Lang Dao took out two yellow vegetable 

 leaves and gave them to him. The old man 

 picked one up and looked at it. They looked 

 Hke yellow vegetable leaves, but were very 

 dry. He carried them on a carrying pole. 



When he had carried them out of the 

 door of the cave, he looked at them. They 

 were not leaves but two large fishes. He 

 carried them home and there was enough 

 for his family of seven persons to eat for 

 seven days. Indeed, that year on the fifteenth 

 day of the eleventh moon Mi Nyang Mi Fan 

 Tsa with her family relatives and the old 

 dragon went to the home that was holding 

 the Tso Chai memorial ceremonies and 

 sacrifices. 



The Sun and the Moon Were Frightened (74) 



When the sun comes out the light shines on 

 the moon. When the moon comes out the 

 light shines on the sun. When the light of 

 the sun shines on the moon, the moon is 

 then white like a person's face. 



The sun also shone on the paint-tree grove 

 of the old woman Na Bo. When the moon 

 came out, it was much like a person's face 

 and it shone on Ye Ch'i's (Se t3i*) mulberry 

 grove. The sunlight dried up Na Bo's paint 

 trees. It also dried up Ye Ch'i's mulberry 

 grove. There only remained one paint tree 

 and one of Ye Ch'i's fine trees. The two 

 (Na Bo and Ye Ch'i) then asked, "Who 

 knows the news (about what the sun and the 

 moon will do) ? Only Yang Ya knows. Who 

 knows the source of the sun and the moon? 

 Only Yang Ya knows the source of the sun 



and the moon." So they sent a person to 

 call Yang Ya (a fine archer and warrior). 



When Yang Ya arrived, he cut down a 

 dried-up paint tree and one of the dried-up 

 mulberry trees. He took a paint tree to 

 make a crossbow's body and a pine tree to 

 make the bow. He took the twigs of the 

 pine tree to make the arrows. From the hill 

 he shot down into the valley (bend) and 

 from the valley (bend) he shot up to the 

 hill. After this he shot an arrow into the 

 sky. He broke a bowstring and shot with 

 his arrow the eye of the moon. He again 

 shot seven arrows across the valley and after- 

 ward shot an arrow into the sky and struck 

 the sun's eye. 



After this the sun was afraid and did not 

 come out for three years. The moon was also 

 unable to come out for diree years. The 

 world below was dark, and it darkened the 

 birds of the air so they could not see. The 

 people on the earth wept saying that they 

 could not get things to eat. The birds of the 

 air could find nothing to nourish them. 



The old Miao woman Na Bo then said, 

 "Let him who has a loud voice call the sun." 

 Someone said, "The cow's voice is loud. Let 

 him call the sun." She also said, "Let the 

 one who's voice is loud call the moon." Some- 

 body replied, "The voice of the tiger is loud. 

 Let the tiger call the moon." Then the cow 

 ran out and lowed eighteen times. The sun 

 was much more afraid. The tiger came out 

 and roared several times, and the moon was 

 scared even worse. They frightened the sun 

 and the moon so that they again did not 

 come out for three years and six months, so 

 that the people on the earth were in greater 

 darkness, and the birds of the heavens were 

 also in darkness, and the people had no place 

 to secure food, and the birds had no place 

 where they could find that which would 

 nourish their bodies. 



People still enquired, "Whose voice is round 

 so that he can call the sun? Whose voice has 

 the right loudness so that he can call out the 

 moon?" Somebody said, "The voice of the 

 rooster is round so diat he can call forth the 

 sun. The rooster's voice is of the right loud- 

 ness so that he can call forth the moon." 



The rooster crowed four or five times and 

 the sun came out thirty feet high. The 

 rooster crowed up to the thirteenth, four- 

 teenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eight- 

 eenth, and nineteenth times and the sun and 

 the moon rose high over the edge of the sky. 



Then the sun said that it was the rooster's 

 cousin.*" The sun said, "I have nothing to 



^^ The sun's mother's older brother's son. 



