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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 



123 



present you. I certainly thank you. I will 

 give you my silver comb." When the rooster 

 received the comb, he could carry it, but could 

 not wear it upon his head. He then pointed 

 the teeth of the comb upwards and put the 

 back of the comb on his head. Therefore the 

 rooster is able to announce daylight and the 

 rooster is likeable, and the sun and the moon 

 are the rooster's relatives. 



The Wife and the Concubine Receive Their 

 Rewards. One Was Changed into a Fair 

 of Scales (76) 



There was a man who married a wife and 

 a concubine. The wife and the concubine 

 each gave birth to a daughter. The name of 

 the daughter of the wife was Nao.^^ The 

 name of the daughter of the concubine was 

 Ts'en.42 



One day the husband and his wife went 

 with the daughter of the concubine. The 

 three went together to hoe. They hoed for 

 a long time when the wife saw a clump of 

 large, coarse grass (called ba ma ts'ao in 

 Chinese) at the bottom of the hill. The wife 

 then said, "Zea, zea, this grass is very fine." 

 Her husband then changed his mind and 

 said, "If you want to eat it, what is there to 

 hinder?" Then he took two creeping vines 

 from the mountain and bound his wife with 

 them and beat her with some other vines. 

 When he had beaten her once, cow's hair ap- 

 peared on his wife's body. He beat her all 

 over, and his wife changed into a female 

 cow. The cow then went and ate a stomach- 

 ful of green grass. When it was nearly even- 

 tide, he with his daughter led the cow back 

 home. 



The concubine asked her husband, "How 

 did you get this cow.?" Her husband an- 

 swered, "Today I took that dishonorable 

 person and traded her for this cow." The 

 concubine was pleased at this. 



Next morning the daughter of the wife, 

 whose name was Nao, led the cow out to 

 graze. When they reached the top of the 

 hill, the cow shed her skin and spread it on 

 the ground and said to her own daughter, 

 "I will help you make hemp strings." '^^ 

 They did this until the afternoon when the 

 mother said to her daughter, "It is getting 

 late. Let us go home." Then she put on 



*^ Nao is pronounced as if underscored and 

 means mussed-up hair. 



*- Ts'en means a small bird that has a curved 

 red bill, a blue back and tail, and a yellow breast. 



^3 Tearing the hemp strips ofT tlie stalks in 

 preparation to making them into strings, or 

 thread. 



the cow skin and the daughter led her back 

 home. 



But the daughter and the concubine saw 

 that she had prepared much hemp and asked 

 her, "Older sister, in the past you were not 

 efficient in preparing hemp. How did you get 

 so much done today?" Nao said, "The way 

 I did it was that the cow's horn, the cow's 

 tail, and the trees of the forest helped me." 

 The other daughter said, "Tomorrow let 

 me go and pasture the cow." Next day the 

 other duaghter went and pastured the cow. 

 She distributed hemp all over the trees and 

 put some on the cow's body. But the cow 

 would not mind her and ran all over the 

 hill and ate up all her hemp. That night she 

 went back home and said to her father, "This 

 cow acted badly. Today she almost killed 

 me." The father said, "She is not respectful. 

 Let us select a lucky day and make an offering 

 of her." 



On the third day Nao took her out to 

 pasture. When they reached the top of the 

 hill, she changed into a person and again 

 helped her daughter prepare hemp. She told 

 her daughter to look for lice in her hair.** 

 The daughter looked for lice and at the same 

 time wept. The tears dropped upon her 

 mother's knees. The mother asked, "Who 

 has scolded you?" The daughter said, "I am 

 not crying about anything. I am sorrowful 

 because in a few days they will kill you and 

 make an offering of you." The mother said, 

 "I can hardly bear this. When they stab me 

 it will frighten my eyes very much. My 

 daughter, you may go back home and in front 

 of the cowpen dig a pit and place a slippery 

 stone slab on the edge of the pit, and let me 

 kill myself lest my eyes be frightened. But 

 do not eat my flesh or drink my soup." 



When the mother had said this, the daugh- 

 ter returned home and secretly did these 

 things. When the cow reached the door of the 

 pen she stumbled and fell into the knife pit 

 and died. They then skinned the cow and used 

 her for an offering to the ancestors, and in- 

 vited neighbors to eat. The girl dipped some 

 meat and soup out and carried it to the door 

 of the cowpen and poured it out beneath the 

 board floor of the pen and came back. The 

 daughter of the concubine said to her, "Older 

 sister, why are you so quick? I'm afraid that 

 you did not take it all the way. This time 

 let me carry it." To her surprise, when she 

 carried it to the door of the pen she spilled 



** A common practice and an evidence of affec- 

 tion. If there are lice, they are killed. If not, the 

 head is scratched to stop die itching. 



