open access

https://doi.org/10.14943/88227

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/73719

Hezhen text (17) : Folklore: Wicked Sister-in-law

日本語

テキスト

2019-03-15

Japan Association of Northern Language Studies

Northern Language Studies

9

145-160

Hezhen is a Tungusic language spoken by the Hezhen living in Heilongjiang Province in China. The Hezhen population is currently reported to be 5354. Less than 5 Hezhen people can speak their native language. This paper presents the glossed transctiption with Japanese and Chinese transcription of a folklore recorded from one of the native speakers, at Raohe village in Heilongjiang Province, China on August 31, 2017. Mrs. YOU Guiqin, a Kilen dialect speaker, was born in 1926 in Sanjiangkou, and now lives in Raohe. The duration of the folklore reported in this paper is approximately 4 minutes and the topic is about a wicked sister-in-law. The outline of the folktale is as follows: Long ago, an older brother and a younger brother lived together. The older brother got married, but his wife was mean to the younger brother. She didn’t permit the younger brother to stay at their home and sent him away. The younger brother made a small temporary shack and lived there. He hung a basket on the outside of the door of his house. Birds came and laid eggs in the basket which sold to buy things he needed to survive. The sister-in-law heard this and also hung a basket outside her house. Birds came and pooped in the basket. The sister-in-law was furious and cried with frustration. She forced her husband to question his younger brother why they laid eggs in his basket but pooped in hers. They thought that the younger brother was making the birds poop in their basket. The younger brother asked them "How could I possibly do that? I didn't make that happen!" The older brother went home without any answers and the birds continued pooping in their basket. Because the sister-in-law treated the younger brother unkindly, the birds dropped poop in the basket, not eggs. The lesson here is to be kind because God is watching. If you are mean, you will be punished. The good person with a clear heart pays off. Despicable and greedy fools seek similar rewards, but they fail and suffer terribly. Such kind of folktale is told widely in the whole of East Asia and Eurasia. It seems that this story in this paper is also one of them. I have never heard this story before from other Hezhen people in other area.

紀要論文

Version of Record

2185-7121

AA12516968