I've been collecting Hmong folktales from various people for a long time now. I'll be sharing them on here if I get good feedbacks. I'll be writing them mostly in English because the majority of our readers cannot understand Hmong (quite sad indeed). Once in a while, I'll throw a few Hmong words in there though. I am already going to assume that you have at least some knowledge of Hmong vocabularies so when I say "his horse," you will know that it's the bamboo straps on the dead person's back and not a real horse.
Alrighty then....story time....
Long long ago, there lived a mean old man, Blia Yao, who lived on the outskirts of town. He did not want to be bothered by anybody for any reason, not even on the day his brother, Chai Neng, died. The whole village asked Blia Yao for assistance with his brother's funeral but he did not care. 13 days after the funeral was over, Blia Yao went to his garden which was on top of a hill. He got half way through his garden work when he decided he was hungry. So he came to his little lean-to and had lunch. A cool breeze blew by and he had thought he heard somebody whispering his name. He listened closely and again, he heard his name coming from a very very far distant. He got up and look around him and saw, far away, down the hill by where paths converged, stood a figure of a man.
"Blia Yao!!!!! I'm very hungry......" the voice echoed faintly. Blia Yao hastily ate his lunch and ignored the man down by the hill, thinking to himself that it was some lazy village bum who wanted to eat his rice.
"Blia Yao!!!!! I'm very hungry....." the voice whispered, this time sounding louder. Blia Yao looked down the hill and noticed that the man was not down by the path but coming up the hill, closer to where his garden was. The man was standing next to a banana tree. Blia Yao screamed down to him, "I have no food with me. I ate it all, eat the bananas on that tree and go home you lazy bum." Blia Yao went back to working on his garden paying no attention to that man.
"Blia Yao!!!! I'm very hungry, I want to eat chicken." The voice replied back.
"I don't have any chicken." Blia Yao lied back. Or course, in his kawm, he had a whole chicken in there. Blia Yao looked again and the man was gone. A few minutes went by and Blia Yao had thought that the man had left him alone, then suddenly...
"Blia Yao!!!! I'm very hungry and I'm eating your chicken right now." This made Blia Yao mad. He grabbed his hoe and went straight to his lean-to hut. Before he got there, he could smell the pungent decay smell in the air. He walked right into his hut and sitting with his back turned to Blia Yao was a man hunched down eating. Blia Yao thought to himself, this man is dressed very stranged, he is wearing woman clothings and what are those bamboo sticks tied to his back.
"Mister...why are you eating my chicken? Don't you know it's mine." Blia Yao screamed at the man.
"I'm eating it because I'm hungry, you did not bring me any food after 13 days." the strange man whispered back. Blia Yao grabbed the man by the shoulder and yanked the chicken from his hand. The man turned around...
"My brother, don't you miss me? You must not love me because you did not bring me food and wine." the man asked. Blia Yao saw right away that this wasn't anybody, but it was infact his dead brother, Chai Neng.
Blia Yao dropped the chicken and ran off. Chai Neng stood up and tried to start chasing Blia Yao but his horse got stuck on the lean-to hut. Blia Yao saw that he was stuck so he kept running. Chai Neng sat back down, picked up the chicken and crouched his way out towards Blia Yao. Chai Neng chased Blia Yao down the hill, then up the hill, then down the hill and up another hill. Blia Yao was exhausted. Blia Yao came upon a man and his wife coming back from the garden too.
"You have to help me, my brother is chasing me, please save me." Blia Yao begged. The couple knew who this man was and did not like him much. The couple pushed him aside and went their own way. Blia Yao started running towards the village. He heard this thumping sound behind him and knew that it was Chai Neng jumping after him. He ran and ran and ran, straight to the mayors house.
"Mayor please help me. My brother is chasing me. I am very scared." Blia Yao pleaded. Being the mayor, he knew Blia Yao's personality but he was also obligated to help. He tied some red strings around Blia Yao's neck and put two wooden sword smeared with black chicken poop on his front door. It was all quiet then a knock knock knock on the door.
"Mayor....have you seen my brother?" a man's voice came through.
"No I have not. I am busy renovating my house, please go away." The mayor replied
"Mayor....I saw him come inside your house."
"That was not him, that was my black dog. If you do not go away, I will send my dogs out and they will tear you to pieces."
"Mayor....I will wait outside here for him." With that, the mayor unleashed his pack of dogs out. All they heard where the dogs barking and attacking. Then they heard thump thump thump...thump thump thump...it was all quiet.
"Thank you mayor, but I am not paying you. I am going home, please don't come and bother me." Blia Yao said disrespectfull y towards the mayor. Blia Yao went home. Later that night, all the dogs in the village started barking everywhere furiously. The villagers all knew what was going down, but nobody wanted to go outside. Then they heard Blia Yao screaming in the distant....a blood curling scream.
The next morning, the mayor found sent people out to find Blia Yao. The found Blia Yao laying next to his brother's grave with his eyes wide open holding a boiled chicken...
Topic: Dab Neeg (Read 1054 times)