Hani people's Legend of Creator--Pomo and Nini

Long ago in the ancient time, the earth was once exploded up, leaving almost every creature on it drowned in flood. Luckily, Pomo and Nini (means brother and sister in Ximoluo, a subgroup of Hani) escaped from this catastrophe by hiding themselves in a large gourd. When the flood had ebbed away, the two of them got out of the gourd, finding that they were the only creatures still alive in the world. Immediately, they realized that they had to marry each other, or there would be no human any more after their death. But since they were brother and sister, they were afraid that their marriage would offend the gods on the heaven. After discussion, they decided to do an experiment first.

Firstly, they collected a pair of dustpans, a pair of sifters, and a set of stone grind; then, each of them picked up one half of those things and threw them respectively to the west and east end of a ditch. Now the miracle appeared: those separated parts met each other in the ditch and connected together again, as if they had never been separated.

On seeing this, Pomo and Nini got the knowledge that they had got the gods permission to get married. Thus, the brother and sister turned into husband and wife. Soon after their marriage, thousands upon thousands of children were born from Nini's head, hands, feet and every other part of her body. Years later, when all their children had grown up, Pomo and Nini presented various kinds of objects before them, asking them to choose their favorites. Those who had taken books and pens, turned out to be ancestors of Han people through ages; others who had taken plows and hoes, became ancestors of Hani, consisted of subgroups Ximoluo, Lami, Biyue, Kaduo and Woni; and also other minority peoples like Lahu and Yi.

(Edit:Ruby)