The Tao (Yami)

In the old days, the Tao lived by the sea. One day, a pregnant woman and an old lady went to the shore together to fetch some water. There they saw that the water was rising and rising. Frightened, they quickly ran back towards the village. Oddly, though, the water continued to pursue them. But at last the strange flood came to a halt, and since the two women were exhausted from all the running, they squatted down to rest. That was when they discovered a white rock, from under which water kept bubbling forth.

Since they hadn’t fetched any water by the shore and didn’t want to return empty-handed, they moved the rock and scooped up some water. As they were on the way back to their village, they saw that more and more water was now spouting out in a fountain, turning into a formidable flood behind them. Soon, the water had swallowed not only the village and the fields, but inundated almost the entire island. At last, only the two mountaintops now known as the Tienwang Peak and the Fangnan Peak were still sticking out of the water.

There weren’t many who had been able to reach the two summits in time, and all the goats, pigs and rats had been drowned. Since no crops were growing on the mountains, they had nothing to eat, and so people were starving to death one after the other. After four years, the sea still wasn’t receding, and the only people still left alive were a man and his wife, who was pregnant. After eight years, a large number of pebbles and luminous shells appeared on the mountain, and in the ninth year, the pregnant woman discovered a mouse. She threw it into the ocean and said a prayer for the waters to recede. And lo and behold, the sea really began to ebb away. But it took another year before it had receded to its original level, and now the man and his wife went down the mountain, which was soon covered with lush forests and green gardens again.

Hosting by Pristine for the Taipei Multicultural Arts Group
Copyright © 2008