268 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 



123 



Nao's baby on her back. Nao walked ahead 

 and Ts'en walked behind. As Ts'en walked 

 along, she pinched the child and die child 

 cried. Nao asked her, "What is the baby cry- 

 ing about?" Ts'en said, "She wants your 

 embroidered clothing." Nao took off her 

 embroidered clothing and gave it to her. In 

 this way she got Nao to hand back to her her 

 jewelry, ornaments, embroidered cloth, rings, 

 and earrings. 



When she had finished deceiving Nao, they 

 reached a pit. At the edge of the pit was a 

 pretty flower. Ts'en again pinched the baby 

 and the baby cried. Ts'en said, "The baby 

 wants diat flower by the pit." Nao then 

 picked the flower and Ts'en pushed her into 

 the pit.^^ 



At night Ts'en put on Nao's clothing and 

 her jewelry and ornaments and carried the 

 baby back into the house. She carried the 

 baby into the bedroom and waited for the 

 husband to return. When he came he saw her 

 and said, "Sister-in-law, have you come here?" 

 She then scolded the husband saying, "You 

 blind man, I am not your sister-in-law." The 

 husband lay down on die bed and said, "If 

 you are my wife, why is your hair so short? 

 My wife's hair is long. She spreads it out 

 for me to sleep on." Ts'en was helpless and 

 took her hair, which was three feet long, for 

 her husband to sleep on. But because her 

 hair was short she suffered pain all night. 



Next day there was a servant (hired by the 

 year) who was cutting grass for the cows. 

 He cut grass until he reached the pit and 

 then saw a bird singing at the mouth of the 

 pit. The sound of the singing was "Ji li li, 

 jao lo lo. Does the baby in die snake family 

 cry or not?" ^- The servant then came home 

 and told his master. The master went with 

 the servant to the pit. When he reached the 

 pit there was actually a bird there. Ntseo 

 Nang then said, "If you are my wife, you can 

 fly onto my hand." The bird then flew onto 

 his hand. He then coaxed the bird to go back 

 home with him. When the bird saw on the 

 child a louse or uncleanness about the eyes 

 she would fly and pick it off. 



When the false wife saw this she said, "This 

 bird is truly detestable. I am afraid it will 

 bite my baby's eyes." And she killed the bird 

 and threw it into the toilet. Out of the bird 

 there grew a bunch of nettles. When others 

 went to use the toilet it would not sting them, 

 but when the false wife went to use the toilet 



^1 It was so deep that she could not get out and 

 probably died of the fall. Pits like this are rather 

 common in the Ch'uan Miao region. 



52 Snake is the family name of Ntseo Nang. 



it stung her. Then the false wife dug up the 

 nettle, and under its roots she found a round 

 stone. She then took the stone and gave it 

 to the baby to play with. 



When she had given the stone to the baby, 

 the baby would not cry. After diis if the 

 baby could not see the stone it would cry. 

 The false wife then became angry and threw 

 the stone into a pool. The stone then changed 

 into a beautiful woman and went into a home 

 in the stronghold. When the child had grown 

 up, every day it would go into the stronghold 

 and play with the woman. This woman 

 picked up rice balls in her hands and gave 

 them to the child to eat. 



The child returned to his home and told 

 his father and said, "Probably that woman is 

 my mother." But his father could not believe 

 it. Later the father went to see Ye Seo. Ye 

 Seo said to him, "Tomorrow you yourself 

 go and invite her and she will come back." 



The next day the husband went and invited 

 that woman and the woman came. The false 

 wife saw that she had come to life again and 

 that her hair was very long. Her hair was 

 45 feet long. That night when she slept with 

 her husband she used her hair for her hus- 

 band to sleep on. When she had spread it, 

 there was some left over. The false wife then 

 asked her, "Sister, how did you get such fine 

 hair?" She replied, "The reason I could not 

 die and could return to life is diis hair." The 

 false wife then asked, "How did you trim 

 your hair to make it that long?" She replied, 

 "It is not at all hard, but very easy." The 

 false wife asked, "Please tell me how." Then 

 the sister Nao used this opportunity and 

 thought of a method to kill her. So she said, 

 "I boiled a big vessel of water and sat beside 

 the vessel, then combed my hair above the 

 water until the steam moistened my forehead. 

 If you do this, I will guarantee that your hair 

 will grow very long." The false wife said, 

 "What is hard about this? Tomorrow I will 

 do this way." 



Next morning that sister heated a big vessel 

 of water to boiling and placed a board on 

 the edge of the vessel and dipped a comb into 

 the boiling water to heat her hair with. Nao 

 dien came up behind and saw her. Nao then 

 said, "Sister, you get into the vessel and take 

 a bath and you will get still better hair." 

 When she had said this, she pushed the false 

 wife into the vessel and she was scalded to 

 death. Then Nao, her husband, and her son 

 all three stood around the vessel. Ntseo Nang 

 sent a message and requested his father-in- 

 law and mother-in-law to come and see. He 



