Hmong Folklore – The Road to Grandma’s House

The Road to Grandma’s House

This story was told by Doua Yang to his son Noua Yang. This has some elements which are similar to the Little Red Riding Hood story. | www.wipps.org

In the old days, there was a couple and they had two daughters, Little Yer and Yer Nou. They lived nicely and then one day the two daughters became disobedient because they couldn’t go to their grandma and grandpa’s house. Then one day the little daughter, Little Yer, asked her parents “Where does Grandma and Grandpa live that you won’t take us there?” Her parents answered, “They live very far, my little one.” “I want to go see Grandma,” the little girl said, “I’ll go by myself.” The father stood in the doorway of the girl and then said, “When you go and reach the road, you go for almost three days. You’ll reach a fork that has three roads on it. If you go on the road that is going uphill you will go to a restaurant and the straight road will lead you to a monster world and the downhill leads you to Grandma’s house.” “Just go like that my little one.”

Then the girl went and then she went to her mother and asked if the road downhill was the one that took her to Grandma’s and her mom said, “Yes, it is my dear Yer.” She got to Grandma’s and said, “Grandma, I came to visit you.” She then stayed with her Grandma for a whole entire year and then she told her Grandma, “Grandma, I have been living with you for a year and I want to go home.” Then her Grandma said, “Yes, my dear, you should go home. You can bring anything to eat on your way home.” Grandma, I want to eat the meat fried.” Then she ate and she was on her way home. The little daughter came home and she had beads and all these beautiful things. Then the older daughter, Yer Nou, saw all the beautiful things Little Yer got so she said she was also going to visit Grandma. “Mom, how do you get to Grandma’s?” “When you go you take the road that goes downhill and don’t go anywhere else.” Yer Nou was very lazy so she took the straight road that took her to the monster world.

She didn’t take the road that went downhill. Then the girl said, “Are you my grandma?” Then the monster said, Yes, I am your grandma.” Then Yer Nou said, “Our mom said that my grandma has really baggy eyes.” The monster said, “See, I have baggy eyes.” Yer said then, “My grandma has a bump on her lips.” The monster said, “See here, see here, I have a bump on my lips also.” Then Yer Nou thought that it had to be her Grandma so she stayed with the monster for a year. Yer Nou told her Grandma [the monster], “Grandma, I’m going to go home.” The monster said, If you go would you like fried meet or boiled meat?” Yer Nou said, “I would like the meat to be fried.” Then Yer Nou couldn’t chew on anything. Then she was on her way home. Then the monster thought, “She’s out so I can go after her and eat her.” The monster ran and ran and ran to catch up with Yer Nou so he could eat her. Then Yer got home and she found out that her family had moved.

The daughter climbed on a rock and then the monster arrived and asked, “Yer Nou, are you going to come down from there?” She said, “No!” Then the monster said, “If you don’t come down then I will come up there and eat you.” The girl said, “Grandma, come if you like. I will teach you how to climb it Grandma. Go up those two steps and then go get some oil and then you go up that so you can come up here quick.” The monster put the oil on the pole and he climbed and climbed but then he couldn’t. The monster said, “I can’t climb it so I’ll burn it.” Then the girl said, “Grandma, burn it on the rock first so you can eat me faster.” The monster believed her so the monster did as she said. He tried it for a while and then the girl said, “Grandma, in order to break that, I’ll give you some seed so you can have something with me to eat.” Yer Nou gave the monster some seeds to plant. “Grandma, I’ll give you these seeds to plant down there and I’ll plant these up here.” Then they planted it.

Then Yer Nou said, “Pulling it is hard.” The monster said, “Yer Nou, do this.” Then Yer Nou did what she was told. She was tired, so she said, “Mom and Dad you sent things to get Yer back. Why don’t  you send someone to take the monster?” Yer got a little bag for her mouth. Yer was then carried away to the skies. Then another bag came to get the monster and then the monster’s  blood became part of the river, his bones became rocks and his muscles became the soil. When we go to the forest and there are mosquitoes, it is part of the monster. When you see some rocks that look like bones -they are bones, bones of the monster. This is the end of the legend.