Ntshiab and Ntshaus

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As the site moderator, I thought it would be nice to begin this blog with a Hmong folktale.  I translated the story from the Hmong version so there were some words that have no English substitution.  In order to do justice to the words, I decided to leave them in Romanized Hmong letters.  If you cannot read Hmong, just sound the word out the way you would sound an English word and whatever pronounciation you get should be pretty similar to the Hmong pronounciation.  Hope everyone enjoys and grasps the moral of this story. 



Once upon a time, there lived two poor brothers named Ntshiab and Ntshaus.  When they were young, they were very poor.  When they grew older and each had a family of their own, they were still very poor.  One day, they decided to seek help from Suav Xeeb Xeeb and asked him to read their fortune to explain why they were so poor. 

Suav Xeeb Xeeb read their fortune and said, “If you both want a good life, you must travel to China.  Go there and find an old Chinese woman who can return to grind your rice.  She is the one who can help improve your lives.”

The two came home and took their horses.  They then journeyed to China.  There, they met an old woman grinding rice slowly and weakly next to a house.  The brothers decided to ask the house owner, “Brother, may we take that old woman with us so that she may grind our rice and look after our home?”

The Chinese man answered, “If you both want her, just take her!  She is old and useless.  My only concern is that she will probably die before reaching your home.”

The brothers remarked, “Perhaps she won’t die that quick.  How much do you want for her?”

“She is old and will soon die.  Even if she stays with me, I’m tired of feeding her.  If you both want her, I’ll let her go for free.”

The two brothers then took the old Chinese woman with them and commenced their journey back home.  Half way through their trip, the Chinese woman could no longer walk so she kept a slow pace.  Ntshiab and Ntshaus were callous as well.  They forced the old woman to walk ahead of them while they whipped their horses to step on the old woman’s heels from behind.  The brothers continued to do this to the old woman until her heels were all bruised up. 

The old woman called, “Sons!  Don’t let your horses keep stepping on my heels or else when we get to your home, I won’t be able to grind rice for both of you to eat.”

“Keep going, you old woman!” they shouted.  “Why do you walk like your bones have yet to mature?  If you are about to die, then die!  Once you die, we can throw you to the side of the road and go home freely!”

The group continued walking until lunch time.  Ntshiab and Ntshaus said to the Chinese woman, “Old woman!  Go and fetch water so that we may have lunch!  Afterward, we’ll continue onward.”

The Chinese woman then left, but took forever to return.  Ntshiab asked Ntshaus, “Why don’t you follow her, brother?  Maybe she died beside the stream?”

Ntshaus nodded and followed the old woman.  After a few paces, he picked up a rock and intended to hit the woman with it so that if she had yet to die, she will die from being stroke by the rock.  However, before he had the chance to initiate his malice intent, he heard the woman moaned, “The sun shines so beautifully onto this place where I, Muam Nkauj Ntuas and Txiv Nraug Xib Qhoo assembled stone grinders and where my little Ntshiab and Ntshaus were fed.  Now that I’m back, where has my little Ntshiab and Ntshaus gone to?”

Ntshaus muttered to himself, “Why does the old Chinese woman cry?”  He quietly put the rock on the ground and called to the Chinese woman, “Chinese woman, fetch some water so that we may eat or else we won’t have energy to return home.”

While the old Chinese woman fetched the water, Ntshaus returned to Ntshiab first and told him what the Chinese woman moaned about.  Ntshaus commented, “I’ve heard people said that our father was called Ntaj Xib Qhoo, but the Chinese killed him and enslaved our mother.  If that is the case, perhaps we should stop the horses from stepping on her heels.”

Soon, the Chinese woman returned with a bucket of water and the threesome had their lunch.  Afterward, they continued on their journey.  After a while, they arrived at the site where food was abundant to feed pigs so the Chinese woman said to the brothers, “Sons, you two go ahead.  Let me stay here for a while and then I’ll follow you.”

The brothers agreed and rode ahead.  But after a while, they did not see the old woman followed them at all.  Ntshaus then asked Ntshiab to go take a look.  When Ntshiab returned to the place where they left the old Chinese woman, he heard her moaned, “The sun shines so beautifully onto this place where Txiv Ntaj Xib Qhoo and I, Muam Ntaj Ntuas have come to pick food for our pigs and where my little Ntshiab and Ntshaus were fed.  After my Txiv Ntaj Xib Qhoo died, I became a slave.  Where have my little Ntshiab and Ntshaus gone to?”  The Chinese woman cried afterward, and her tears tumbled down her face nonstop.

Ntshiab called to the Chinese woman and insisted for her to continue the trip before darkness overwhelmed the sky.  After a while, the group arrived at a place where wood were abundant for woodcutters.  The Chinese woman became nostalgic and moaned with similar words.  The two brothers decided to ask the Chinese woman, “Chinese woman, you keep on moaning about something.  Are you Chinese or Hmong?”

The Chinese woman answered, “I am Hmong.”

“If you are Hmong, what is your husband’s name and what is your name?”

“My husband’s name is Ntaj Xib Qhoo and I am called Nkauj Ntaj Ntuas.  We haven’t married for long and I barely had two children when the Chinese soldiers killed my husband and enslaved me.  They then took me to China with them.  But back then, I left two children here in Laos.  I don’t know where they have gone to.  However, returning here is making me missed them and that’s why I keep on crying.  So who are your parents, sons?”

“Us?  We heard others said that our parents are called Nkauj Ntaj Ntuas and Txiv Nraug Xib Qhoo, and we are called Ntshiab and Ntshaus.  But we’ve never seen our parents before.  Since young, we have been poor so we went to ask Saub for help.  Saub told us to go find an old woman to come live with us so that our lives will improve.  That is why we came to find you.  So of your two sons, who is the older one?”

“Ntshiab is the older one.  Ntshaus is the younger one.”

After the brothers heard the woman’s correct response, the three hugged and cried for some time.  When the old woman stopped crying and smiled to her sons, she stroked their heads gently and told them to go home. 

When they neared their home, Ntshiab and Ntshaus’ wives came out to observe.  The wives yelled, “Heaven oh heaven!  Why have Ntshiab and Ntshaus gone to bring such a dirty old Chinese woman home?”

Ntshiab and Ntshaus told, “This woman is our mother.  Please don’t say that.”

The brothers took their mother inside the home.  She then took off her wearied old clothes, containing many knots, onto a table and changed into a new set.  She called on Ntshiab and Ntshaus’ wives afterward.  “My two daughters-in-law!  Take my clothes and wash them.  No matter how many knots you encounter, please untie them all.”

The younger daughter-in-law felt disgusted at the sight of such old and dirty clothes so she shouted, “Such filthy clothes, I won’t wash them at all!”

But the elder daughter-in-law commented, “No matter what, it is mother’s clothes so I will wash them.”  Hence, the eldest daughter-in-law took the clothes to a stream to wash.  While washing, she stumbled upon a knot.  She untied the knot and found small-sized silver coins.  She continued to wash and stumbled upon another knot.  She untied it and found medium-sized silver coins.  She then untied knots after knots until she retrieved a pile of silver coins. 

The younger daughter-in-law came to fetch water and saw the pile of silver coins.  She asked curiously, “Sister Ntshiab, where did you get that pile of money?”

The elder daughter-in-law answered, “Earlier when mother asked us to wash her clothes, you said that her clothes were too filthy for you to wash.  So I brought the clothes to wash.  I then untied the knots as mother instructed and found all of these silver coins.”

“If that is true, let me untie the knots then!” the younger daughter-in-law demanded.  She took the clothes away from the elder daughter-in-law and untied the remaining knots.  But, she only retrieved a handful of silver coins.

When the rice planting season arrived, Ntshiab and Ntshaus’ mother said, “Little Ntshiab and Ntshaus, don’t let your rice plants ripened before you begin to harvest them.  You need to harvest your rice when the stalks are still standing tall despite them being a bit green, so that heaven will give you a good price.  If you let your rice grow until they are fully ripened and their stalks have hovered over, heaven will not give you a good price.”

Ntshiab listened to his mother so he followed her directions.  Ntshaus, on the other hand, did not follow his mother’s instructions. 

Ntshiab waited only until the rice grains formed, and then he harvested the rice already.  Ntshaus, however, waited until his rice ripened and their stalks yellowed and dried before he harvested them.  In the end, each brother harvested a whole barn’s full of rice.

That night, a thunderstorm roared in the sky.  When the first golden sun ray glittered in the eastern horizon, Ntshiab found that his barn of rice was now filled with a barn of silver to the top of the ceiling while Ntshaus found only a few pieces of silver at the bottom of his barn.

Ntshaus’ mother said to him, “Son, you didn’t listen to me so this is your punishment.  From now on, whatever I say, you must follow well.  One day when I’m no longer around, there will be no one else to teach you how to live a good life.”

From that day on, Ntshaus then remembered to abide by his mother’s teachings.

Many years passed and there came one day when Ntshiab and Ntshaus’ mother became frail so she said to them, “Sons, you must love each other.  Don’t start or get into troubles, don’t become thieves, and don’t become adulterers.  Adhere to principles of justice and righteousness and you’ll both lead a good life until your old age.  As for me, I am old now and I have already created life and established wealth for you both.  It is time for me to go live with your father in heaven.”

Ntshiab and Ntshaus were still crying and talking to their mother when a cloud descended from the sky and swept their mother to heaven.  Since then, Ntshiab and Ntshaus lived together as loving brothers and their lives became well-off like others.

Story Translated into English by: TT Vang

UPDATE (2/28/2014): I decided to add the Hmong audio clip of this story for anyone who takes pleasure in listening to a story-teller.