Belief : Hmong folk tales

Hmong folk tales.       The Hmong have historically been the tribe that lives around mountains and in close contact with nature. They believe in spirits. Therefore, they have stories about this and morals from the stories to teach each new generation. One example is the story of Grandfather Phang-Chae, or the orphan man. Grandfather Phang-Chae tale.       Once upon a time, a man lived along the Khong River with a happy family but without children. His name was Phang-Chae. So much did he want a child that he took another wife and brought her to stay with him and his first wife. Still, Phang-Chae wanted to give the honor of a child to his first wife, and make the second wife jealous.

One day, both wives got pregnant and Phang-Chae went to work in the field alone. The second wife gave birth to a daughter and the first wife to a son. The second wife was jealous. She took the son of the first wife out to be eaten by the buffalo, but the buffalo refused to eat the son. She then took the child to the cows. They, too, did not eat, but the second wife forced the child into the cow’s mouth. All the while the cow prayed to the holy things to keep the child alive.

In the evening, Phang-Chae returned from his work in the field and wanted to see his children, but only his daughter was there. The second wife then claimed that the first wife had never actually been pregnant. Phang-Chae was furious at this and chased the first wife away to live in the cattle pen and work in the farm everyday, breeding the cattle. Around one to two years later, the cow that was forced to swallow the child gave birth to a bull. It was very beautiful. The first wife, who was breeding the cattle every day, grew fond of the calf, bathing it and caring for it. The calf also grew fond of the woman and slept beside her.       One day the first wife cried because she missed her son. A tear dropped on the calf, and the calf became a boy. The boy, her son, helped her to sew cloth and breed cattle every day.

In the evening, the son would change back into a calf again. The second wife caught sight of the first wife being happy about breeding the cows and realized that the calf must be the first wife’s son. Cunningly, she made out that she had an illness, and then asked Phang-Chae to go and ask the god at the cliff about it. It was a trap: she intended to pretend to be the god and trick her husband.

So Phang-Chae made an offering to the god at the cliff and asked about his wife’s illness. At the same moment, the second wife went to the cliff and, impersonating the god, told Phang-Chae that the sewn cloth from the first wife was unlucky and should be given in offering. Phang-Chae went back to his house and relayed everything that he thought the god had told him back to the second wife, who urged him to make the offering so that she would get better. Phang-Chae took the sewing cloth off the first wife and burned it in honor of the god. But the next day, when the first wife was breeding the cows in the farm, her son transmuted to be a boy again and helped his mother sew a new cloth, because they were family.

The second wife, meanwhile, was scheming to find a way to destroy the boy and the first wife. She feigned illness again and asked Phang-Chae to consult the god at the cliff again. This time, she told her husband -- while impersonating the god -- that the god would like to eat calf, and that if he made an offering of calf as make a ghost model by use the calf be a model, then the god would cure his wife. The next day, Phang-Chae told his first wife that he would sacrifice the calf to the god on the following day in order to heal his second wife. The first wife immediately told the calf of Phang-Chae’s intention to sacrifice it. Both of them then poured water on the area where the calf would be tied tomorrow.

      The next day, when the calf was tied up in preparation for the sacrifice, it began struggling and running around, until the string was torn off the wood. The calf escaped and ran as far as it could. Within minutes, the calf saw a flock of cows. It joined this flock and lived with them. One day, the daughter of the owner was counting the cows and stopped before the bull, asking, “Who is your owner? Why have you come to live to live with this flock?” Suddenly, the bull transmuted to be a handsome man and she fell in love with him.
      The son came to live with this woman at night. She eventually fell pregnant and her father wanted to know whose child it was – there was other no man courting her. One day, he peeked into his daughter’s room and saw the man who kept coming to
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