Flood-Surviving Brother and Sister
Hmong · demigod · Hmong/Miao great flood age · Recorded classification
Demigod / progenitor culture-heroes (a paired sibling progenitor unit), classed as demigod. sex='mixed' as the unit comprises a brother and a sister. Personal names vary by region and are often unrecorded; the alt name (Nkauj Iab / Nraug Oo) appears in some Lao-Hmong tellings. No traditional script, hence RPA fields left empty where the source gives no term.
Domains
- flood survival and renewal
- origin of the clans
Powers
- Rides out the world-flood sealed inside a wooden drum or gourd
- Cut up their formless child and scatter the pieces to make the clans
Relations
- student: Grandfather CreatorBrother-and-sister flood survivors instructed by the creator Saub on repopulating the world (reciprocal of Saub's mentor edge).C.F. Keyes & Hmong/Miao flood-origin traditions; Yawm Saub instructs the surviving brother-and-sister progenitors after the deluge (secondary)
Sources
- In the Hmong flood myth a brother and sister are the sole survivors of a world-deluge; their union and their dismembered, scattered offspring give rise to all the Hmong clans.: Charles Johnson (ed.), Dab Neeg Hmoob: Myths, Legends and Folk Tales from the Hmong of Laos, Macalester College, 1985 (secondary); Nicholas Tapp, 'Hmong Religion', Asian Folklore Studies, vol. 48, no. 1, 1989 (secondary)