Dr. Do-Diddily and the Dee - Dot's

A Tibetan Proverb.

When the man is gone-the woman has no leader -

- When the rooster is dead-the donkey has to bray.
                            

The Wily Poor Man

     ONCE upon a time, in the center of a great wide plain in a mountainous country, was a Hläkäng in which was a statue of Chenrezik, the god with a thousand arms. Near the temple was a small house, and in this house lived two old people who had a daughter whose name was "Ceering Droma," which meant Golden Goddess of Mercy. The parents thought it was about time that the girl should marry, so they said to each other, "To-morrow we will go to the Hläkäng, take some gifts for the god, kotow before him and cast lots as we ask about her marriage."

About a half-day's journey away there lived a poor man who brought up peaches and walnuts to sell. He happened to be near the window and heard these old people talking about going to the temple; so the next day as soon as the doors were open, he slipped in and hid in the great god. The old people came, worshiping the god, and saying,

"Great and merciful Chenrezik, we have many things and only one daughter, and as we are very old and may die and leave them, it's for you to tell  us what is best to do. We leave it all in your hands. Is it better for our daughter to become a nun or to be married? When we lie down to-night to sleep will you speak to us in a dream or will you speak to us here, now? Help us to think aright and know your meaning."

The fellow that was hiding in the god spoke through his nostrils and said, "There will be a man come to you in the morning, you must give her to him."

The old people thought this was very wonderful that the god had really spoken and they could be in no doubt as to what he meant. After they were gone the man slipped out of the temple, and on the next morning early, there he was kneeling at the old people's door. The woman saw him and called to her husband,

"Here he is, the god told us he would come."

So she led him in, had him sit in the place of honor and put fine food before him. They gave him the daughter for his wife, gave him a handful of turquoise stones and asked him to be very kind to her. He said he would, and took his wife and his peach box and started home. As he neared home he began to think of the lies he had told the old people, saying he was rich and had a fine house and plenty to eat, and he knew there would be nothing to eat at all. So he thought he would go on ahead and see what could be done. He took his box off of his back, put his wife and the turquoises in it and set it down in the sand and covered it all up, then went home and borrowed all the things he could, good food, good cushions and rugs. He told his neighbours they must not tell he was poor, because that day he had gotten him a wife and she wasn't to know it. It took him about four or five days to get this done, and all this time his wife sat there in the box in the sand.

One day there were three kings going along the road with their servants, their bows and arrows and a tiger, all out for a good time. They thought they would stop and shoot at the mark. They aimed at the pile of sand, and, ping! the arrow hit the box. They dug the thing out and found the girl and the turquoises all covered up in the sand.

The king said, "Who are you?"

She answered, "I'm the daughter of the king of the lower regions."

The king said, "Will you be my wife?"

She said that she wouldn't mind, only somebody would have to sit in the box. He said that the tiger would do, so they put him in the box and covered it all with sand as she had been covered.

After her husband had fixed his house he stole down to where he had buried his box, dug it out and carried it home on his back. He thought,

"This woman will be afraid of me by now. I'll open the box and see if she is ready to be obedient." (He had already told his neighbours that if they heard them fighting a little they needn't come over and interfere.) He fixed the bed ready for his wife, opened the box and the tiger jumped out at him, tore his clothes and nearly frightened him to death. He began to yell for his neighbours in a loud voice, but he had shut and locked the outside gate so that his wife couldn't get out if she tried to. His neighbours heard the noise and laughed saying he had just got a wife and they were already fighting. So they waited until the next morning to go over, and when they went in there sat a big tiger with his mouth all covered with blood. As soon as he saw them, he ran away into the forest, and all they could find was a few little bones.

In the meantime the girl had married a king and had much gold and riches. But the people in the kingdom and the head-men of the cities did not approve, and said, "This woman came out of the ground and has no lineage, and this, her son, who will be our king and rule over us, will have no ancestors."

       When the queen heard this murmuring she thought the best thing she could do was to go back to her father and mother and stay there, but decided to wait till the fifteenth, when the moon was full. So she ran away, and as she neared her home, or where her home used to be, she found in its place a palace, and where the old building had stood there was a great temple covered with golden minarets with bells everywhere, which rang sweetly when the wind blew.     There was a man in her father's house, and she asked him whose house this was. He spoke her father's and mother's name, so she went into the house to rest. She found the lower story full of horses, mules and cows, and she knew these people must be very wealthy. When she got into the guest room there sat her father and mother on cushions and fine rugs. She bowed down before them and said,

"I have come home. I'm so glad you are here and not dead, for all my husband's people say that I have no lineage and am not fit to be the mother of the future king. Now, if only they could come to see you and find out how rich and great you are they might change their minds."

Her father and mother said, "Tell them to come over and see us, if they don't believe you have parents and a rich home."

Dr. Do-Diddily and the Dee-Dot's

This story that comes from China but finishes in Tibet I found written in a very old book of myths and legends 1893. It does not have an author and nor the book a cover but to me it is very beautiful and I wrote it in my Seligor's Castle way back in 2007, I lost an awful lot of the work I had done in the Castle when my computer crashed and died. However I did have everything on the old floppy html and I have just managed to trans-whatever it back to this. I am so pleased. I hope you enjoy it, even though it is told for children.

THE LAND OF BLUE FACES

      The royal maids stood in a row, the candles shone with a red flame on the palace walls, the musicians played "The Song of the Rainbow Skirts" many, many times, but still the little princess continued to cry.

"But I don't want to marry and go to live in the Land of the Blue Faces," she cried.  She wore on her feet pretty shoes, each one having a butterfly embroidered on the toe of each shoe. Her lips were painted red like cherries and her hair was as black as a raven; she wore it in a long plait down to her knees. She was very beautiful; but nevertheless she continued to cry.

Her mother the Empress was not very happy at her daughters continual crying.

"Does this weeping really become a Daughter of the Dragon Throne?" she said, "Why if we had the choice of choosing our own husbands, do you really think I would have chosen your Imperial Father?"

    The maids smiled discreetly behind their wide sleeves, for at that very moment the doors opened and the Son of Heaven came in followed, by his chief minister who was carrying a red lacquered casket. "Most fortunate of daughters", the Emperor said as he settled himself into a chair and smoothed his gown over his rather lavish stomach." Just look at the wonderful presents your, would be husband, the Lord of Tibet sends you, such beautiful gifts".  He opened the red casket and took from it a tiny silver spear with; a carved bird of jade at the tip. "Just look how beautiful this would look in your hair most honourable daughter. But the princess just shook her head and wouldn't even look at it.

" Come now child" said the Empress, I am sure you are really very happy to be marrying such a wonderful man." This upset the little Princess even more and she flung herself on the ground at her father's feet, sobbing and clinging to them. "Oh do not send me to the Land of the Blue Faces," she begged him. "Is your daughter never to see the lights of the lanterns with you again on New Year's Day, or watch the petals unfold on the plum trees in spring? Is she never to hear the orioles sing in the bamboo thicket, or fly kites with the lords and ladies of your court?" she sighed. "The people of Tibet have faces tattooed blue, like the thieves and murderers in China. They live in huts and wear the skins of animals - indeed this is true, for this person has read it in the Travels of Counsellor Chang. And, and they don't have beds or chairs, instead they lie without any clothes on, outside on the bare earth."

   The little Princess looked up into her father's face. "It is even written that they drink milk. Oh this would be too much, this one could never drink Milk!" The little Princess sat and cried more and more. But no matter how much the Princess didn't want to go; the day came when she was dressed all in red, her coat was made of red satin and her special bridal head dress was also red. Under this she was wearing a five cornered, light, white cotton coat, which a bride must wear when she was about to go to a new home. For the last time she knelt in front of her father for his blessing, then she climbed into her chair, the curtains were drawn and she was carried away

   The men carrying the chair to its destination started their long journey. Sometimes they went through fields, then through bamboo forests and across wide streams; they even crossed the tawny sands of the desert. But the little Princess didn't look out through the curtains, she was far too unhappy. She sat for hour after hour, the swaying of the chair keeping her awake. Already she was beginning to miss her home, all her childhood memories came flooding back to her .

    The sun rose and then went to sleep again. Days came and night chased them away, then after many weeks they began to cross a great mountain range. They climbed high above the pine trees and the wild rock roses. The weather grew colder and although the little Princess was huddled underneath wads of padded quilts, she was still cold. The track now was covered in ice and the wind howled all night long Presently however the little road began to fall away and the bearers carrying the chair with the little Princess in it, swayed downhill towards lower ground, until one morning the bearers set down the chair and after scratching gently on the curtains to arouse the Princess the chief bearer said, "See, down there, Daughter of the Son of Heaven" he said pointing down the side of the mountain. "Yonder is the Land of the Blue Faces."

    The little Princess looked out and could hardly suppress a gasp of pleasure for there below them lay a valley, brimming like a lake with apricot trees in flower. Here and there small terraced fields shone like emeralds in the clear air and down low in the valley a river ambled on its way, gleaming in the sunlight. The bearers stumbled down the mountainside until they came to a village of stone huts, where a little group of peasants stood waiting at the roadside to see them pass. They bowed low and the Princess trembled, for she expected to see hideous blue faces, but as they raised their heads she saw that they were brown, smooth-skinned and smiling just like the Chinese peasants at home. The women held their children high in the air to wave to her, and the Princess nodded graciously to them in return, as her chair passed them by. On and on the road wound its way through groves of mountain trees, until the Princes saw in the distance the walls of a city. Above the battlements the tiled roofs of many houses showed blue and red and green, just like the roofs of the Chinese houses at home. There was even a Chinese Pagoda, many storeys high, with bells hanging from the leaves; they tinkled in the morning breeze. The bearers passed under a high stone arch which spanned the road. The Princess smiled, she might have thought herself in China, and the little Princess opened her eyes wide in astonishment.

    She began to feel less homesick now and to wonder what the Lord of Tibet would be like. "Probably he will be old and ugly" she thought. "Perhaps he will have no teeth left, and I shall have to prepare milk and bread for him to eat. Oh dear! How will I endure these things?" Just then her eye was caught by beautiful colours ahead as the great gates of the city swung open and a crowd of people came out. They wore long robes of silk in the Chinese fashion, scarlet, green and blue; they were bowing and waving their hands; and among the sound of the many voices the Princess heard the Chinese words constantly repeated. "Honour and long life to the Lady of Tibet."

The Little Princess could hardly believe her ears. A young man on a sturdy, shaggy pony rode forward from the crowd. His face was brown and his eyes were sparkling. He pulled off his fur cap and bowed with a flourish, lowered his horse's neck. "Welcome Daughter of the Son of Heaven,"  he cried. "Welcome to Tibet."

"Is this really the Land of the Blue Faces?" asked the little Princess; "or am I perhaps among the people of Wu Ling?"

"Ah you are admiring our fruit trees," said the horseman, and the Princess was amazed that a barbarian would know the works of the Chinese poet Tao Chi'en and the legend of the Peach Blossom Forest. "No, honoured Madam, this kingdom is indeed Tibet."

"But where are the people with the blue faces?"

"The Lord of Tibet feared that they may frighten you, so he has sent them all away."

The little Princess frowned. "And may I ask without offence why this town is full of Chinese buildings?"

"The Lord of Tibet feared that you might be a little homesick, so he has built this poor copy of a Chinese city for you."

Again the princess frowned but maybe not so hard.

"Yet I am sure I saw the lords and ladies wearing Chinese robes and speaking the language of Han." she added.

The Young man on the horse smiled at the little Princess.

"The Lord of Tibet feared that you might be lonely, so he has ordered his people to copy the Chinese in everything."

"Then pray inform the Lord of Tibet that the Daughter of the Dragon Throne wishes humbly to thank him.

"The horseman laughed and the Princess saw his beautiful white teeth.

"I am the Lord of Tibet," he said. "We have waited a long time for your coming, dear little Princess, and now that you are here you are even more beautiful that I had imagined. Would it please you to ride here behind me, on my horse, through the gates of the city so that my people can see you at last?"

The Princess was secretly delighted, for in all her life in the courts and the palaces in her city, she had never been allowed to do such a thing. The Lord of Tibet reached down and swung her up into the saddle and she clung onto his broad shoulders with both hands.

A bride must leave her father's house with sorrow, and now and then she did remember to look a little sad for the sake of appearances but, as they rode into the city, she was very happy to be the Lady of Tibet and her heart sang, even if it were in the land of the Blue Faces.  

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The Grıla legend has been frightening to the people of Iceland for many centuries - her name is even mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's thirteenth century Edda. Grıla was not directly linked to Christmas until in the 17th century. By that time she had become the mother of the Yule Lads. A public decree was issued in 1746 prohibiting the use of Grıla and the Yule Lads to terrify children.

According to folklore Grıla has been married three times. Her third husband Leppalúği is said to be living with her in their cave in the mountains with the big black Christmas cat and their sons. As Christmas approaches, Grıla sets off looking for naughty boys and girls. The Grıla legend has appeared in many stories, poems, songs and plays in Iceland and sometimes Grıla dies in the end of the story.