欧美学界对西南少数民族的研究状况（打印版）(13)

Living mostly in the mountainous regions of Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou provinces, the Yi, one of China's minority nationalities, have long been sedentary agriculturists and stock raisers. Music, dance and traditional myths and legends have served the Yi people as means for expressing various aspects of their culture. Thus beyond its value as literature, the romantic saga Seventh Sister and the Serpent is a rich repository of Yi social life, customs and mores.

The narrative is set in a mythical world where the appearance of fantastic beings and personified animals is taken for granted. The story begins with a flood, which occurs in a distant era of the past. When the flood waters recede, Seventh Sister's parents are discovered in the upper branches of a tall tree. They descend from the tree and give birth to a son and seven daughters. The son of the Dragon King, Serpent Prince, begins an extended and eventually successful courtship of the youngest daughter, a process through which we are introduced in great detail to Yi social customs.