The Water Lady

Sham S. Misri

According to Chinese Legend, under the large spring was a village where a poor woman lived. She had her old mother-in-law with her who treated her badly. She made her do the entire house works like, to fetch water from the well, cooking the food and mending the clothes etc.

One day being upset, she said, “Death would be better than such a life.” When she was thinking about her unhappy marriage, she got up to throw herself into the river. Suddenly, an old woman appeared, and said, “Why do you want to die?” When the poor woman heard the kind expression she told her all her troubles. After listening to her story, the old woman gave her a magic rod and told her to strike the pail with this rod and it would be filled with water.

However, the old women told her beware of striking it twice. The poor woman thanked and returned home. When she secretly struck the pail, it got filled with water. She was very happy, as she no longer had to fetch water.

One day her mother-in-law accidentally saw her using the magic rod and stole her magic rod .She struck it once, twice, and in a flash the water poured out of the pail and covered the house and all the other houses in the whole village. Then, all the rich fields became one big lake.

When the poor woman saw what had happened, she could do nothing, since the old woman had not told her how to make the water stop, so she was drowned in the flood. The water is still flowing out the pail, which became a large spring.

Later the people in the village built a temple in honor of the poor woman, and called her the “Water Lady ".