Hmong Story Cloth [Yer and the Tiger]

Embroidered story cloth with the tale of ‘Yer and the Tiger’ represented in the central panel on a blue ground. It is bordered with reverse appliqué designs in brown/white then blue/brown mountain motif then white/ brown border and then lastly a blue bound border. The story is narrated in pictures with accompanying words stitched in white, they are numbered so you can tell the order of the story.

The story goes like this,

A family lived far away from the village, secluded in the woods. Yer, the younger sister, went to live with her older sister, brother-in-law Lau Lua (Louo on this cloth), and nephew. She helped tend the farm and look after her nephew. One day Lau Lua went hunting and shot a gibbon that fell to the ground. A watching tiger attacked him, ate his flesh, and put on his clothes. Disguised thus, the tiger carried the gibbon and gun home. However, at the house, Yer noticed that her brother-in-law now acted, walked, ate his food, and talked differently. Yer informed her older sister, but she didn’t listen to Yer. Yer was scared, so she slept up in the loft. That night she heard bones crunching and knew that the tiger was eating her sister and nephew. In the morning, the tiger told Yer to climb down, but she refused. She tossed crushed peppers into its eyes. The peppers burned, so the tiger went to the river to wash its eyes. Yer told a bird to send a message to her family to come rescue her.