A story of a dog hat

A Story of the Dog Hat

It is a folk custom in the countryside of China to have a kid wear a kind of hat which looks like a dog's face, especially in the provinces of the southeast of China.Here is a story about the kind of hat. Long ago, there were two brothers in a family, both of whom were married and lived peacefully. The elder brother and the wife were honest and tolerant, but they didnot have any children. And it was regarded as one of the biggest problems for a couple without children in China then. The elder brother and his wife were so upset for the matter that he would liketo adopt one of his nephews. "Well, my nephew is the right person to be my heritor." he said to himself. But when he talked this to his younger brother and the wife, he was refused absolutely for noreason.

Not long after, anyhow, the younger brother fell ill and died. Eventually, the burden of supporting the two sons was laid on the younger brother's wife. In that case, the elder brotherbrought the request for adopting one of the sons from her again. But he was refused again and was given no reasons. That made the elder brother very puzzled.

Years later, to the elder brother's delight,his wife was finally pregnant at her middle age. The elder brother was a merchant and he sometimes had to go out on business. For fear that his wife would give birth when he was away, he hadeverything well prepared and a midwife was found in the village. Little did one think, things happened just as he did not wish to. His wife was brought to bed just when he was out doing business. The youngerbrother's wife went to help eagerly. She went for the midwife in time, but she bought off the midwife to accomplish a plot on the elder brother's wife. Now what the midwife would do was nothing buttheir conspiracy according to the younger brother's wife, who had been intending to get the properties from the elder brother. And that was the reason why she refused to meet the request for adopting a...