Women’s Words Part Flesh And Blood [The Chinese Fairy Book]
ONCE upon a time there were two brothers, who lived in the same house. And the big brother listened to his wife’s words, and because of them fell out with the little one. Summer had begun, and the time for sowing the high-growing millet had come. The little brother had no grain, and asked the big one to loan him some, and the big one ordered his wife to give it to him. But she took the grain, put it in a large pot and cooked it until it was done. Then she gave it to the little fellow. He knew nothing about it, and went and sowed his field with it. Yet, since the grain had been cooked, it did not sprout. Only a single grain of seed had not been cooked; so only a single sprout shot up. The little brother was hard-working and industrious by nature, and hence he watered and hoed the sprout all day long. And the sprout grew mightily, like a tree, and an ear of millet sprang up out of it like a canopy, large enough to shade half an acre of ground. In the fall the ear was ripe. Then the little brother took his ax and chopped it down. But no sooner had the ear fallen to the ground, than an enormous Roc came rushing down, took the ear in his beak and flew away. The little brother ran after him as far as the shore of the sea.
Then
the bird turned and spoke to him like a human being, as follows: “You should
not seek to harm me! What is this one ear worth to you? East of the sea
is the isle of gold and silver. I will carry you across. There you may take
whatever you want, and become very rich.”
The
little brother was satisfied, and climbed on the bird’s back, and the latter
told him to close his eyes. So he only heard the air whistling past his ears,
as though he were driving through a strong wind, and beneath him the roar and
surge of flood and waves. Suddenly the bird settled on a rock: “Here we are!”
he said.
Then
the little brother opened his eyes and looked about him: and on all sides he
saw nothing but the radiance and shimmer of all sorts of white and yellow
objects. He took about a dozen of the little things and hid them in his breast.
“Have
you enough?” asked the Roc.
“Yes,
I have enough,” he replied.
“That
is well,” answered the bird. “Moderation protects one from harm.”
Then
he once more took him up, and carried him back again.
When
the little brother reached home, he bought himself a good piece of ground in
the course of time, and became quite well to do.
But
his brother was jealous of him, and said to him, harshly: “Where did you manage
to steal the money?”
So
the little one told him the whole truth of the matter. Then the big brother
went home and took counsel with his wife.
“Nothing
easier,” said his wife. “I will just cook grain again and keep back one
seedling so that it is not done. Then you shall sow it, and we will see what
happens.”
No
sooner said than done. And sure enough, a single sprout shot up, and sure
enough, the sprout bore a single ear of millet, and when harvest time came
around, the Roc again appeared and carried it off in his beak. The big brother
was pleased, and ran after him, and the Roc said the same thing he had said
before, and carried the big brother to the island. There the big brother saw
the gold and silver heaped up everywhere. The largest pieces were like hills, the small
ones were like bricks, and the real tiny ones were like grains of sand. They
blinded his eyes. He only regretted that he knew of no way by which he could
move mountains. So he bent down and picked up as many pieces as possible.
The
Roc said: “Now you have enough. You will overtax your strength.”
“Have
patience but a little while longer,” said the big brother. “Do not be in such a
hurry! I must get a few more pieces!”
And
thus time passed.
The
Roc again urged him to make haste: “The sun will appear in a moment,” said he,
“and the sun is so hot it burns human beings up.”
“Wait
just a little while longer,” said the big brother. But that very moment a red
disk broke through the clouds with tremendous power. The Roc flew into the sea,
stretched out both his wings, and beat the water with them in order to escape
the heat. But the big brother was shrivelled up by the sun.
Note:
This fairy-tale is traditionally narrated. The Roc is called pong
in Chinese, and the treasures on the island are spoken of as “all sorts of
yellow and white objects” because the little fellow does not know that they are
gold and silver.
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