Women’s Words Part Flesh and Blood
The opening tale begins at millet-sowing time. A brother asks for seed, and a domestic quarrel turns on the difference between grain that can still sprout and grain that has been cooked.
From the text
Summer had begun, and the time for sowing the high-growing millet had come. The little brother had no grain, and asked the big one to loan him some, and the big one ordered his wife to give it to him. But she took the grain, put it in a large pot and cooked it until it was done. Then she gave it to the little fellow. He knew nothing about it, and went and sowed his field with it. Yet, since the grain had been cooked, it did not sprout.
Richard Wilhelm; translated by Frederick H. Martens · Frederick A. Stokes edition, 1921 · Frederick A. Stokes Company · 1921
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