Page 6 - 《原YOUNG—青少年雜誌期刊》106期

部落傳說
Girl sacrifices herself to save tribe

Story of the Taroko Flood

A Taroko folk tale has it that, a long time ago, there was a kind-

hearted and hard-working beautiful girl. She usually worked in the
millet fields during the day, and weaving at home in the evening.
She often lent a helping hand to those in need. When the crop

was harvested, she would share it with her poor fellow tribesmen.

However, this pretty girl well-liked by everyone attracted also the
attention of the water god. The water god wanted her so much
that he made heavy rain fall, causing a huge flood, to threaten the

tribe to hand over the prettiest girl among them, or the entire tribe
would be flooded.

The tribe elders called a meeting to discuss the matter. As soon
as the girl knew about this, she expressed her willingness to go with

the water god. However, people did not want to let her go. They
gave the most unfilial girl to the water god instead. Afterwards, the

heavy rain continued and the stream surged, flooding most of the
houses. The sky went all dark.

The elders prayed to the water god again in the heavy rain.
It turned out that the water god was angry as he found out he

had been fooled by the tribesmen. The elders called for another
meeting to discuss the matter, and this time decided to give the

laziest girl to the water god. The elders took her to the river and
said to the water god: "Water God, we have brought the pretty girl

you want, please let the flood recede." Then they threw the lazy girl
into the flooded river. Nevertheless, the heavy rain continued, and

the flood soon submerged the entire tribe. People rushed for their
lives to the highlands where they were hungry and cold, and had to

04 | sining

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@௅ໝෂႭ JOEE
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