語言不是理性的，是一種習慣，習慣成自然，就再也不去想它。可是偶而，把語言翻出來看一看，好玩。我們很多用語，用習慣了就不再思攷它了。

例如：出遠門要帶甚麼？當然帶行李。好了，為了遠行，這個「行」字很恰當，但「李」呢？

李不是一種水果嗎？出遠門多吃水果？或者現代人隨便說說？莫非「李」是它字的訓詁叚借？

行李一詞，其來久矣。左傳僖公三十年：
若舍鄭以為東道主，行李之往來，共其乏困，君亦無所害。
僖公三十年，西元前六三0年，可見斯詞歷史已有兩千六百多年。

說文，李，果也，从木子聲。段注：古李理同音同用，故行李與行理竝見。

看樣子，行李當行理。這，有理吧。

眾所周知，李也是中國大姓。人口太多，難找出一個精确答案，可是中國最大的姓，大概是木子李。李姓總人口超過一億人，佔中國人的百分之八左右。

還好，因為自古有諺語說的好：李多人不怪。

The Chief, Dali Watan, 我乾爸達利‧瓦旦 = 簡福源 = 山田樣, has been ailing for a couple years, with heart trouble mainly, but also problems with his red blood cells. He was admitted to the hospital a month ago, and spent two weeks in Intensive Care. Finally, they decided it was time to bring him home. He passed away late last night. His 78th birthday is Tuesday, the 30th.

We will miss him sorely.

It's hard to imagine what a different world Wulai was when he was a boy. The men of his father's generation were headhunters; Dali was of the first generation not to win a tattoo for his face by bringing home heads. Taiwan was occupied by Japanese warlords until he was in his early teens. The first airplane flew over Wulai when Dali was in grade school (click here:::). Once a week a supply truck came to the village, the only motor vehicle on the road, and there were no paved roads anywhere near Wulai. Because of the power station, a few of the Japanese offices had electricity, but nobody else. Some of the Tayal went to 新店 (Hsintien, on the outskirts of Taipei) once a year to buy things. What is now a half hour bus ride to Hsintien was a morning's hike; now crowded with high-rises, Hsintien was then a small farming village (no paved roads there, either). Wulai had a population of about 250, almost entirely Tayal aborigines, most of whom had never been out of the mountains.

Dali saw immense changes during his long, productive life. He excelled in school and got much more education than most people in Taiwan then, especially aborigines, so he was chosen as a leader. He served as Headman of Wulai Village, County Councilman, and Wulai Township Mayor, among other posts. (also: click here::)

Times were different when he took office, so he often had to use his fists to make his point with old headhunters and soldiers back from serving in the front lines of the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII. He was notorious for his hard work and exacting standards. He earned respect both within the tribe and beyond.

He was devoted to his tribe and his village, and worked for decades to help the Tayal and improve their lives. People remember him as a hard, principled, trustworthy man.

As for me, without Dali's help, I would not have the chance to live in Wulai.

Yaba, talakay sunun su Yugan ru Sabiy, ngihuy inlungan simu. Mhwaysu su balay. Amitabha.

It's not fair. Click :::here::: and click on the red square, and hold. Dodge the blue boxes without touching the border lines. Apparently Air Force fighter pilots can last for over two minutes.

I have played this off and on for months. Once I broke 13 seconds, but usually I get wiped out between 11 and 12 seconds. The other day I broke 12 seconds, and was so proud that I showed the site to Chao.

She tried it on her computer. Within a minute, I heard, "Oh, how nice, 14 seconds." 14 seconds?? A fluke, to be sure.

A few moments later, she asked me to look at her computer screen again: 14.587 seconds. Beginner's luck, it won't last.

Seconds later, she brightly announced, "Oh, that's nice, 15 seconds."

I asked her to turn off the game and do something serious, more befitting an adult.

Try it yourself and see. But please, if you break 12 seconds, just keep it to yourself, okay? I don't need to know about that.

Long ago, I heard a story about a state dinner that took place in Washington DC some time before WWII. A politician found himself seated next to a Chinese guest. Trying to make conversation, when the soup was served the American pointed and asked, "Likee soopee?" The Chinese guest smiled and nodded. When the main course was served, the American pointed and asked, "Likee foodee?" The Chinese dinner partner beamed and nodded. And so on, course after course.

After dinner, the evening's speaker was presented: the Chinese guest. He rose and gave an eloquent speech in flawless English. When he was finished, he sat down, smiled to his American dinner partner, and asked, "Likee speechee?"

overheard in Wulai
「我頭上有玉米嗎？」

"Do I have corn on my head?"

As I was working outside this afternoon, Yumin suddenly bolted off and ran into the jungle, barking his beagle head off. Okay, no big deal, happens all the time. From his bark, I could tell he was not barking at a dog or a person. Tlahuy and Byajing stayed by my side, totally bored, so I did not pay much attention to Yumin, until he kept barking for so long that I figured I ought to go take a look. I figured, he either had a squirrel, a cat, or a snake, but if it was a squirrel or cat, the other two dogs would have been raising a ruckus with him.

Sure enough, Yumin was barking at a snake under some taro leaves. I tried to keep Yumin off it, or at least get him to quiet down. I did not permit Byajing to attack from the rear, either. Tlahuy, wise old doggie, did not see any point in bothering the snake.

The snake is a 臭青公 King rat snake, Elaphe carinata, over two meters long. Sorry, I didn't drag it out to measure it. But this is where the story gets interesting.



As its name implies, the 臭青公 King rat snake, or Stink rat snake, is named for its smell. When provoked, it acts like a skunk. This everybody knows.

However, 乾爸達利‧瓦旦 Dali Watan told me years ago that there are two kinds of臭青公. When provoked, most let off a terrible smell; in Tayal, these are called qimunix. But there is another kind which, when provoked, does not put out a stench, but rather hisses and swells itself up; in Tayal, these are called qor.



In these clips, you can hear nothing but Yumin, me, and the cicadas, but the snake was hissing and swelling, but it did not let out the odor; it was a qor.

Now, I have never seen this difference in behavior noted in any books or reference materials, but the Tayal (aborigine) language differentiates between these snakes, based on their behavior (assuming one is not a subspecies of the other). The sad thing is, most young Tayal just call this a qosun, the 錦蛇 striped tailed rat snake, elaphe taeniura, and the words qor and qimunix have fallen out of use.

Semantics aside, I couldn't get Yumin to stop barking. Finally I had to pick him up and carry him home bodily. He's not a light beagle.

Tsou hunter, early 20th century

= Yugan, the Tsou鄒 tribe thinks they are great hunters, but do you know that's not the truth?

+ It's not?

= No, of course, how could it be the truth? The only great hunters are we 布農族 Bunun hunters.

+ Oh, I believe you, I believe you.

= No, it's true! But the Tsou tribe, they do not know how to hunt at all.

+ No?

= No, absolutely not! But they never brush their teeth, you see. All Tsou tribesmen are dirty.

+ What's that got to do with it?

= You see, when they aim at a squirrel, they point their gun at the squirrel, and they concentrate so hard that their mouth falls open. Then the squirrel sees those two dirty yellow buck teeth, and thinks, Oh, look, there are two kernels of corn there for me to eat! And the squirrel scampers up the barrel of the gun to eat the corn, and the Tsou catch them that way.

+ Oh really.

= Absolutely! You see, the Tsou don't know how to hunt at all. That's how they do it.

+ Oh, I believe you, I believe you.

photo: Bunun hunters, early 20th century

photo: Paiwan hunters, early 20th century
= That's a nice necklace you have on. Is it Paiwan排灣?

+ It's actually Lukai魯凱, but Paiwan, Lukai, they're just about the same.

= But not many Lukai do this kind of work.

+ Yugan, there's not much difference between the Lukai and the Paiwan tribes. The Paiwan sneer at the Lukai and say, You are really swarthy! The Lukai sneer back at the Paiwan and say, You are even swarthier!

= But the Lukai have bigger eyes.

+ Yugan, that's the truth! The Lukai have such big eyes that they can see in the dark.

= Their eyes collect light better?

+ Yes, that is so. The Lukai say they are great hunters, but do you know the story behind it? When we Amis or the Paiwan or the Tayal go into the mountains to hunt, we have to track down game, it's very difficult, but for the Lukai, it's different.

= How so?

+ The Lukai go into the mountains at night, and their eyes are so big, they're like lights shining in the darkness. The flying squirrels see the light and are so dazzled that they fall out of the trees and die. The deer see the light and are so dazzled that they run into trees and kill themselves. The boars see the light and are so dazzled that they run into boulders and break their necks. So you see, Yugan, the Lukai are not really great hunters, it's just that their eyes are so big, and shine so brightly in the darkness of night, that all they have to do is go pick up the dead animals.

= So that's the story behind their hunting.

+ It is! Of course, I'm not prejudiced.

= Of course not, because it's the truth.

+ The absolute truth! You know, Yugan, that even though I am Amis, my wife is Lukai, just like Qalux's wife Naluwan, she's from the Lukai tribe too. One time I was visiting my wife's tribe. It was night. I was sitting outdoors. I heard a strange sound coming towards me. It went kwiiii kakkakak kwiiii kakkakak and it was coming closer and closer, kwiiii kakkakak! I saw two lights shining in the darkness, coming closer and closer to me! I thought, Is this a human being, or is it something inhuman or supernatural? The lights came closer! And Yugan, do you know what it was?

= I have no idea.

+ It was my father-in-law coming home drunk! He had been out drinking with his buddies and he was so drunk that he put on the wrong flip-flops. He had a plastic flip-flop on one foot and a wooden one on the other, so he was making this strange noise as he walked, kwiiii kakkakak kwiiii kakkakak! And he's Lukai, so he has these HUGE eyes, and they were shining in the darkness and frightening me! I really didn't know if it was a human being or a ghost! But it was my father-in-law!

= I see!

+ But of course I'm not prejudiced.

= Of course not, because it's the truth.

I just saw a book title: How to Be Happy. Tremendous! Can you get a refund if you're not happy when you finish reading it?

The 景頗/Jingpo/Kachin have fought long and hard against the Burmese military junta. Now the junta plans to transform all such ethnic groups, including the Kachin Independence Army of the Kachin Independence Organization, Kokang, Shan, and Wa, into Border Guard Forces. Click here:::

I don't know the ins and outs, but this could be a face-saving deal. The Kachin, Karen, and other groups have fought the junta to a standstill, and this may be a way to grant them autonomy without admitting that they have earned their independence. If they could defeat the ethnic armies, the junta would never negotiate with them; but decades of fighting have proved that the junta can't subjugate their minorities.

I hope this turns out well. The civil war in Sri Lanka is finally over. With luck, Burma will enjoy peace too. And then prosperity.

leading the manau
Originally uploaded by Yugan Dali

I have found what has got to be, hands down, the world's funniest website: Vegetarians Are Evil. Here you are warned against 'Deadly Poisonous Soybeans,' and informed that 'Vegetarianism is Child Abuse.' The site lists such famous vegetarians as Pol Pot, Genghis Khan, and Hitler, but how could they forget Stalin, Satan, Mao, Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Ronald McDonald, Calvin Coolidge, Jack the Ripper, Bonny and Clyde, and other famous, violent vegetarians? I laughed so hard my stomach hurt.

One thing I believe this site has proved conclusively. They ask, Are vegetarians more intelligent? If you look through this site, you will answer with a resounding YES!!

The last job in the world I would want would be a miner. I cannot imagine making my living by crawling into the earth and waiting for it to fall in on my head. I express my great respect and sympathy for all miners by using mined products as sparingly as possible.

Pit mining murders miners, strip mining murders the earth. But it turns out that there is a type of mining worse than either of these: mountaintop removal coal mining.

The US Environmental Protection Agency defines mountaintop removal:
"Mountaintop removal/valley fill is a mining practice where the tops of mountains are removed, exposing the seams of coal. Mountaintop removal can involve removing 500 feet or more of the summit to get at buried seams of coal. The earth from the mountaintop is then dumped in the neighboring valleys."

The process is the stuff of dreams for heroes like Ronald Reagan or Dubya: first the mining company clears all the plants and wildlife from the mountaintop, then they blast off the top couple hundred meters of mountain with explosives, dig the coal out with automated machinery that keeps people and jobs off the worksite, dump the waste all over the nearby environment, process the coal, and smile all the way to the bank.

By 2003, coal company permit maps show that they had destroyed 700,000 acres: 284,000 hectares. How big is that? 700,000 acres (love these online conversion machines) is 1093 mi² = 2830.87km2 which doesn’t help me a whit more than it does you. For a comparison that I, at least, can understand, the台北基隆都會區 Taipei Keelung metropolitan area is 2,457.1253 square kilometers, so the mining companies confess to devastating an area larger than Taipei and Keelung together. Too big.

That does not include the nearby valleys and downstream ecosystems buried and annihilated, or unreported damage. Way too big.

Does that bother you? Start here: I love mountains
留個青山在~~~

Today I sawed down a utility pole.

Overheard going into the jungle
Amis: 你買那個甚麼？
Yugan: 掃把。
Amis: 買掃把幹甚麼？地上滾一滾，灰塵就起來了。

Amis: What’s that you've bought?
YD: A broom.
Amis: What do you need a broom for? Just roll around on the ground and you'll pick up all the dust that way.

Taiwan is a great place for vegetarians, and it just got even better.

First, why a great place? Three reasons. Taiwan has a lot of mainstream Buddhists who are 素/su vegetarians. That means no animal products whatsoever, and none of the 葷fetid vegetables: onions, garlic, leeks, scallions. For more on this, please see this post, and you may want to read this post::: The second reason is that for decades, Taiwan has been gourmet paradise, albeit unsung. Taiwan is home to over twenty million finicky eaters who demand the best cuisine, and thousands of restaurants working hard to provide that. The third reason is that Taiwan has a wide variety of luscious fruits and delicious vegetables. I remember reading somewhere that Taipei's markets usually stock an average of eighty varieties of fruit and vegetables. Average. And that doesn't begin to tell you how good everything tastes. Climate, soil, Chinese farming techniques developed over millennia, plus demanding consumers.

Why do I say it just get better? Read this:::: the Department of Health has announced strict new labeling standards for vegetarian food, violation of which may result in fines up to NT$200,000 (about US$6,100). Including 葷/fetid vegetables (see above) or dead animals in vegetarian food may result in fines of up to NT$300,000 (over US$9,000), and if the crime is repeated within a year, the producer's license will be revoked.

So if you want to eat well, come to Taiwan!

一蜂嚼樹葉，俯首見狼群獵鹿。蜂思之，若群蜂齊攻，必大獲鮮血鮮肉。于斯歸巢謁蜂王，與論之，蜂王曰：善！蜂王招群蜂，計攻鹿，群蜂曰：善！蜂擁而出，以攻鹿，不料鹿竟逃脫。

歸巢論功過，一蜂曰，蜂雖多卻小，鹿雖寡但巨，小不敵巨。吾有一計，乃請眾蟲合攻，若克，論功授肉。

群蜂曰：善！

一老蜂執杖而前，曰，善則善矣，但不宜造次。宜循次。

蜂王曰，何謂循次？

老蜂對曰，眾蜂無紀，臨敵必亂。以不教蟲戰，是謂棄之。大王若招眾蜂攻獵，應由小漸大；先獵小牲，兔鼠之輩；克，則獵羊；克，而後獵鹿，是謂循次。

蜂王曰：善！于斯四方招蟲：蝎、蚋、虼、蚊、蠅、蠲、蟊、蛭、蠹、虻、蝨、蠆、蝗、螟蛉、蟑螂、蜈蚣、蚰蜒、蜘蛛、蜾蠃、螞蟻、，無不致。蜂王諭旨，皆歡喜信收，列隊成陣出征，迅速獵獲一鼠，凱旋而歸，蜂王論功賜肉。各蟲依序受肉，再拜頓首，欣然回窩享用。

鼠肉食罄，眾蟲浩浩蕩蕩出征，迅速獵獲一兔，凱旋而歸，蜂王論功賜肉。各蟲依序受肉，再拜頓首，欣然回窩享用。

兔肉食罄，眾蟲浩浩蕩蕩出征，迅速獵獲一羊，凱旋而歸，蜂王論功賜肉。各蟲依序受肉，再拜頓首，欣然回窩享用。

羊肉食罄，眾蟲浩浩蕩蕩出征，循次計果然靈驗，鹿雖大，寡不敵眾，雖欲逃脫，插翅難飛，卒為眾蟲所獲。眾蟲歡喜若狂，凱旋而歸，蜂王論功賜肉。各蟲依序受肉，再拜頓首。但蜈蚣上殿拜受賜肉時，不料老蜂執杖而前，曰，且慢！

蜂王問，何事？

老蜂對曰，蜈蚣今不當賜肉。

蜂王曰，蜈蚣驍勇善戰，陷陣破敵，因何而不賞？

老蜂對曰，請問大王，今所獵為何獸？

蜂王曰，今獵鹿矣。

老蜂對曰，正是。自古聖賢曰，蜈蚣不受鹿。

蜈蚣
Originally uploaded by Yugan Dali

As I have reported here and here (and here too) on this blog, as soon as Byajing came, Tlahuy and Yumin fell in love with her. She is a sweet little dog, and adores her two big brothers. But I am thinking, maybe we ought to get another puppy girl, maybe she needs some more female influence in her life.

This morning I was working outdoors near a kyumin茄苳 tree I planted years ago. Yumin walked up to the tree, sniffed, lifted his leg, and whoosh. A moment later, Tlahuy walked up to the tree, sniffed, lifted his leg, and whoosh. A moment later, Byajing walked up to the tree, sniffed, lifted her leg, and whoosh…. Mmm, Byajing dear… that’s not ladylike…

If you don't know both languages thoroughly, it's not a good idea to get cute with transliterations. Consider the vegetarian cafeteria chain 明德, literally Bright Virtue or, from Great Learning大學之道，在明明德，在新民，在止於至善; the path to great learning is to elucidate bright virtue, to keep the people up to date, and to stay in the greatest good.

Ok, so if they had stuck with a simple transliteration, Ming De or Mingteh, all would have been fine, but some genius got the bright idea of trying to make it sound like English: Minder…

The Urban Dictionary defines Minder as "a muscle brain who defends/protects a criminal or shady operator from other criminals/shady operators and also does his employer's dirty work in general."

Also, in Australia, minder means minda, which is an insult school children use to mean idiot, retard.

So shut up and eat your vegetables, or else, pinhead!

In memory of all the lives, talent, hope, and possibilities that were crushed twenty years ago today.

Smoke gets in your eyes
Before the beginning of the 19th century, British imperialists found they could make a killing (literally) if they grew opium in India and sold it in China. On June 3, 1839, the mandarin 林則徐/Lin Tzehsu confiscated British opium and started burning the stock. It took forty days to burn all of it, which gives you an idea of the amount of drugs the British were selling. The British, who constantly assure us of their superior ethics and higher morals, responded to the Chinese burning of their stash by sending an army and instigating the Opium War.

Now June 3 is celebrated (or ignored) as 禁煙節/ Opium Suppression Day, and is also a day to remind everybody of the dangers of smoking.

Today is 170 years since Mandarin Lin started burning the British exploiters' opium. Now is a good day to resist ruining your health by smoking American exploiters' tobacco.

A dread condition, congenital exhibitionism among letter-carriers.