It is with a different spirit we find woman spoken of
in the traditions of the Chinese; but perhaps it may be
considered equally unflattering:—
Tien (the Creator) placed man upon a high mountain,
which Tai-Wang (the first man) rendered fruitless by his own
fault. He filled the earth with thorns and briers, and said:
“I am not guilty, for I could not do otherwise. Why did he
plunge us into so much misery? All was subjected to man at
the first; but a woman threw us into slavery. The wise husband built up a bulwark of walls; but the woman, by an
ambitious desire of knowledge, demolished them. Our misery did not come from heaven, but from a woman. She
lost the human race. Ah, unhappy Pao See! [first woman]
thou kindlest the fire that consumes us, and which is every day
augmenting. Our misery has lasted many ages. The world
is lost. Vice overflows all things like a mortal poison.”
Emerson, Ellen Russell, Indian Myths or Legends, Traditions, and Symbols of the Aborigines of America, Boston: James R. Osgood and company, 1884, p. 129.
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