STORIES AND RIMES
One of the best ways to know boys and girls is to learn something of
the stories they like to hear and tell. Here are one or two which will
help you to understand our friends the Chinese children much better
than pages of talk about their looks and ways.
First, there is the story of how the yellow cow and the water buffalo
exchanged their skins. You must know that the yellow cow has a fold of
skin which hangs loose beneath her neck, and a loud bellow, while the
buffalo has a tight grey skin, that looks some sizes too small for his
great round body, and a tiny wheezing voice, which sounds strangely
coming from so large a beast. Long ago the buffalo was yellow and
his skin fitted well enough, while the cow was grey. Now it happened
that one hot day the cow and the buffalo went to bathe in the river,
leaving their clothes upon the bank, while they enjoyed themselves in
the cool, green water. Presently there was a roar, which told them that
the tiger was coming. Out of the water they dashed, and the cow, being
the nimbler of the two, scrambled up the bank ahead of the buffalo. In
her haste she picked up the first heap of clothes which she came to
and began putting them on, hopping into them one leg at a time between
the steps as she ran. The buffalo was not far behind, but so frightened
lest the tiger should catch him, that he did not notice that the cow
had run off with his clothes. He picked up hers and struggled into
them somehow, then he ran for his life. He never was very bright, but
blown by running and frightened though he was, he soon noticed that his
jacket was very tight and that it was the wrong colour. There was the
cow running in front of him, and he could see that she had put on his
nice yellow suit. He wished her to stop and give him back his clothes,
but the tiger was somewhere in the woods not far behind them. So they
ran and they ran until at last they were safe from pursuit.
As the cow slowed her pace the buffalo overtook her. Before he had
quite made up to her he tried to shout out, “Give me back my clothes,”
but he felt so tight and puffed so hard that he could not speak. He was
very stiff about the ribs and a little angry, so instead of attempting
a long sentence he tried to say, “Oan,” one word only, which means
“change.” All he could get out, however, was “Eh-ah, eh-ah,” in a
wheezy little voice.
The cow understood his meaning well enough, but she felt so comfortable
in her new yellow skin that she only answered “M-ah, m-ah,” “I won’t, I
won’t.”
And so the buffalo has been wheezing “Change, change,” and the yellow
cow has been mooing “I won’t, I won’t” ever since.
Here is another ‘just-so’ story, which tells how the deer lost his
tail. Long ago an old man and his wife lived in a lonely cottage upon a
hill not far from forests and rocky places where wild beasts had their
holes.
One night, when the man and his wife had finished their supper, they
were talking together, as they often did before going to bed. In the
course of their talk the old man happened to say: “How happy we are in
our cottage upon this hill far from the city where thieves and beggars
bother and policemen frighten people. We do not fear thieves nor
policemen, nor tigers nor demons, nor anything at all, unless it be the
Lio--yes, we need not fear anything but the Lio.”
There was a hush in the cottager’s voice when he spoke the last words,
and when he had spoken them, both he and his wife were quiet for quite
a long time. Now it chanced that a tiger, which had crept down from
his cave under one of the blue peaks of the mountain overhead, was
prowling round the cottage whilst they were talking together, hoping to
pick up the watch-dog or a fat pig, before setting out for a hunt in
the valleys far below. Hearing the sound of voices, he stopped outside
the door. The family dog, who was far too wise to be out at night near
the edge of the forest, smelt him and crept into the corner of the
room furthest from the door, under the bedstead. He dared not growl or
whimper. There he lay, his brown hair bristling over his shoulders,
and he breathed so quietly that the young mice in their hole by the
wall were sure that he was dead, although their little grey mother knew
better.
At the moment the tiger began to listen to the talking inside the
cottage the old man was saying: “We not do fear thieves nor policemen,
nor tigers nor demons, nor anything at all, unless it be the Lio.”
There was something in the way he spoke the last words and in the way
he stopped after saying them, which showed that he really was afraid
of the Lio. The tiger, who had never heard of a Lio, wondered what it
could be, so he lay down quietly outside the door to listen, hoping
to hear more about the terrible beast which frightened people brave
enough to fear neither tigers nor thieves nor demons. All was dark
and the hill side was very still. Behind the cottage a thief, who had
come to rob the lonely couple, was crouching close to the wall. He too
heard the old man talking about the Lio and wondered what the terrible
creature could be like. Presently he crept round the side of the
cottage. The tiger noticed a sound coming moving through the darkness.
It was the thief. Though he slipped along as quietly as a pussy cat the
tiger heard him with his wonderful wild-beast’s ears. Dark as it was
when the thief crept round to the front wall, he felt, rather than saw,
that there was something lying beside the door of the little house.
“Good luck!” he thought to himself. “This is the old man’s cow.” It
was impossible to see, so he stole up gently to try to find out what
the creature might be. He put out his hand to feel, and touched the
tiger. In a moment he knew that this was no cow. Its hair was harsh and
its muscles like iron bands. Could it be--surely it could not be--the
dreadful creature of which he had just been hearing. Reckless as he
was, the thief felt his heart stand still. Next moment he jumped to one
side, climbed the wall of the cottage, and hid on the roof.
Meantime the tiger, making sure that the unseen thing, which had come
upon him in the darkness, was nothing less than the Lio itself, got up
and fled. He ran and he ran, until he met a deer in the forest. The
deer drew respectfully to the side of the path, as in duty bound when
meeting his betters. “Where does his Excellency come from in such a
hurry?” he inquired in rather a timid voice.
“Oh! from nowhere, from nowhere at all,” answered the tiger, a little
bit confused by what had just happened. Then he recovered himself and
told the deer how a terrible beast, called the Lio, had touched him in
the dark.
“A Lio, your Excellency! Why, I never even heard of a Lio,” said the
deer in great surprise. “What is it like?”
“A Lio is very clever,” said the tiger; “it climbs houses and comes on
you in the dark. If you would like to know more about it I will take
you to where it is. Come, let us go together.”
“But the Lio will catch me, your Excellency, I am but a weak creature,”
said the deer, drawing back a little, for he did not wish to be gobbled
up. He never had known the tiger so quiet and polite before, and he
could see by the gleam of the great green eyes, even in the dark, that
his companion was turning his head every now and then, as if he thought
the Lio might come gliding through the forest to spring upon them at
any moment.
“Don’t be afraid,” said the tiger, growing braver at the thought of
having a companion to go back with him, “I will take care of you.”
“But, your Excellency, the Lio will come and you will run away and
leave me to be caught,” answered the deer.
“Oh, no, we can tie our tails together, and then it will be all right,”
said the tiger. For you must know that at that time the deer’s tail was
much longer than it is now.
“Tie our tails together and both get caught at once,” gasped the deer,
so surprised that he forgot to be polite.
“Not at all,” said the tiger, with a little growl in his voice. “When
the Lio comes I will ‘put forth my strength’ and pull you away with a
whisk before it can get hold of you.”
“Ha! ha! ha!” laughed the deer, his spotted sides shaking until the
white marks danced again, “what a clever plan.”
So the deer and the tiger tied their tails together, and set off to
look for the Lio. They had to walk carefully through the forest,
because the bushes and trees would get between them, and as they went
along they talked in whispers about the Lio, until the deer felt creepy
all over. At last they reached the edge of the wood, where they could
just make out the black cottage looking very dark against the sky. A
branch cracked as they passed under the last tree.
The thief, who was still crouching on the roof of the cottage, took
fright at the sound, and making sure that the terrible beast he had
heard of was coming back, jumped down from the tiles, narrowly missing
the deer as he reached the ground.
“Help, help, your Excellency, the Lio!” cried the deer, terrified by
something, he knew not what, coming tumbling out of the night. The
tiger ‘put forth his strength’ and gave a great spring, when crack!
the deer’s tail broke off close by the root. The thief ran, the tiger
sprang, the deer bounded away, in different directions, each thinking
that the terrible Lio was close at his heels. But the Lio none of
them ever saw. What was strangest of all, the old man and his wife,
who never had seen a Lio in all their lives, went quietly to bed that
night without an idea of what was happening outside in the dark. And
now you know why the deer has only a white tuft sticking up, where his
beautiful long tail used to be.
The following story about a bird is a favourite one with boys and girls
in some parts of China.
There is a little grey bird, called the Bean bird, which pipes a sad
note in the spring. Its cry is said to be like the Chinese words for
“Little brother, little brother, are you there?” According to the story
a man, who had one son, married again and had another little boy. The
second son’s mother hated the elder brother and wished very much to get
rid of him so that her own child might enjoy the family property. Again
and again she did her best to get the poor lad into trouble with his
father, and too often she succeeded.
One day in spring when the farmers were busy putting their crops into
the ground she found some beans in a flat basket with which the elder
brother was going to sow his field. The boy was nowhere to be seen, so
she popped his beans into the empty rice boiler, and putting some grass
into the fireplace below, heated them until those tiny parts which
turn into buds and sprout under the soil were killed. Then she put
the beans back into their basket and left them to cool. The boy knew
nothing of all this, but the younger son, who dearly loved his elder
brother, noticed what had been done, and hoping to save him a scolding,
quietly put his own beans into the basket and took the roasted ones
to use himself. Then they went to the fields and each one sowed his
plot of ground. After a time their mother sent the boys to see how the
crops were doing. “If the beans have not sprouted in either of your
fields you need not come home again,” said she. “We do not wish to have
useless, lazy children in this house.”
The elder brother’s little field was covered with green plants, so he
went gleefully home and told his stepmother. The younger brother’s plot
was brown and bare, not a bean had come up through the soil. He knew
there would be trouble for his brother if he went home, so he started
off for the mountains, hoping that his elder brother would be left in
peace if he were gone. He wandered away and away, until at length a
tiger found him and ate him up.
The stepmother was vexed when her son did not come home from the
fields, and with many threats and angry speeches sent the elder boy to
go and look for him. The lad, who was anxious to find his companion,
went everywhere calling, “Little brother, little brother, are you
there?” The workers on the upland farms and the grass-cutters on the
hills, heard his voice floating faint and far, as he wandered farther
and farther away. Now it was here, now there, always calling the same
sad cry, “Little brother, little brother, are you there?”
When he could find him nowhere he knelt down in his despair and prayed
Heaven to show him where his brother was. As he prayed and wept he
knocked his head upon the ground. His head struck a stone, the blood
ran and he died. The blood which flowed from his wound was changed into
a little grey bird, and every year, when the beans are sprouting in
the fields, the bird comes with its plaintive cry, now near, now far,
“Little brother, little brother, are you there?” When the children hear
its call they say, “Rain is coming,” and surely enough the drops begin
to fall before long, as if the skies remembered an ancient wrong and
wept for sorrow.
There are many stories of children famous in China long ago. Here is
one which shows how even a little child may care for others, thinking
and acting wisely in time of danger.
Many hundreds of years ago, in the time of the Sung Dynasty, a boy
named Sze Ma Kung was playing with some other boys and girls. When
the fun was at its height, one of the party fell into a great big jar
of water. The children were so frightened that they all ran away,
except Sze Ma Kung, who at once went to try what he could do to save
his companion. The edge of the jar was too high for him to reach over,
so the little fellow could not get at the sinking child, to pull him
out of the water. There was no time to fetch a stool or call for help;
another moment and the prisoner would be drowned. A good idea struck
him. He rushed off, and picking up as large a stone as he could carry
he dashed it against the side of the jar. Crack went the pot and a
great hole opened, through which the water all ran away. Then the
child crept out like a half-drowned puppy, but not much the worse for
his drenching. When people heard of what Sze Ma Kung had done, they
knew that if he lived to grow up he would be a useful man, wise and
thoughtful and quick to help others.
Stories are told of children diligent at their books, who were famous
in after life. One lad, who was too poor to buy oil for his lamp, used
to catch fire-flies and read by the pale-green light they gave. He put
the fire-flies inside a tiny muslin bag, which he laid upon the page of
his book, the light which they gave being just enough to let him follow
his lesson, line by line. Another used to read by the light reflected
from snow, as the day failed, or when the moon rose. A third used to
fasten his book to the horn of the cow he was tending, so as to use the
precious hours for study; while a fourth tied his queue to a rafter of
the low roof above his head, so that when he became drowsy and nodded
over his lesson, he might be wakened by the pain of having his hair
pulled.
Another kind of story helps to fix the written ‘characters’ in
schoolboys’ memories. One of these tells how a scholar, called Li An-i,
went to visit a rich boor named Ti Shing. When he reached the house
and asked for the gentleman, a message was brought that he was not at
home. Li An-i knew that this was not true, so he wrote the character
for ‘afternoon’ on the door of Mr Ti’s house and went away. When asked
why he had done so, he said that the character for afternoon meant
‘the ox not putting out its head.’ When you know that the character
for afternoon is the same as the one for ox, but without the dot which
makes the head of it, and that a stupid person is called an ox in
China, much as he would be called an ass at home, you will understand
Mr Li’s joke. He meant that the man, who had not ‘put out his head’ to
see him, was a stupid ox.
There are plenty of nursery rimes in China, one or two of which will
show you that Chinese children are very much like our own. Here is one
about our old friends the sparrows.
“A pair of sparrows with four bright eyes,
Four small feet that pop, pop so,
Four wings that whirr, whirr, how they go!
Pecking rice and grain likewise.”
Another reminds us a little of the pig that would not get over the
stile.
“A bit of copper fell out of the sky,
And hit an old man as he passed by.
When the man began to jog,
He struck against a dog.
When the dog began to yell,
It struck against a mill.
When the mill began to fall,
It struck against a hall.
When the hall began to build,
It struck against a stool.
When the stool began to sit,
It struck against a sheet.
When the sheet began to tuck,
It struck against a duck.
When the duck began to wade,
It struck against a blade.
When the blade began to cut,
It struck against a hat.
When the hat began to wear,
Catch the thief and slit his ear.”
The following verse, which is often shouted by boisterous little
scholars, pokes fun at a greedy schoolmaster, who has lost the respect
of his pupils. The first and third lines are from the _Three Character
Classic_, the first book a child learns; the others are hits at the
master.
“‘Primal man’s condition’
Teacher sly steals chicken.
‘Good at root was his heart,’
Teacher’s nicking gizzard.
The boys won’t touch a book,
Roll teacher in the brook.”
The boys and girls of China are learning the stories of Joseph,
Samuel and Jonathan, of John the Baptist and of Peter. They read
the _Pilgrim’s Progress_, _Jessica’s First Prayer_, _Christie’s Old
Organ_ and many another favourite, which has been put into the Chinese
language for them by the missionaries. Best of all they learn the story
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and through it come to know the Blessed
Saviour Himself.