The Autumn of Matriarchal Society (Novella) Zhang Baotong 2018.10.10

After living together with the wolf for a night, the black mother has a deeper fascination with the wolf, but after the wolf gets up early in the morning, he has to leave. It's a rule, and it's a habit. Men have to go out hunting, and women have to be busy supporting their families. She hugged the wolf tightly and kissed it, very nostalgic and reluctant. However, she still sent him out of the cave. The true character of a man is to be diligent, brave, persistent and strong, and cannot indulge in lingering tenderness. This will not only harm him, but also himself.

She took the spear in his hand, and the short arrows and the bag of animal skins on his shoulder, and carried him to the grassy slope where he had sat during the day, and watched him go down the hill and over the river and into the forest, shirtless and with long hair.

Wu Ma was stunned on the grassy slope for a while, watching the sun already rise from the top of the east mountain, thinking that a new day had begun again. She wanted to take the children out into the woods to pick some pulp leaves and fruits, dry them in the autumn sun, and store them for famine, but when she remembered the encounter she had had with the big spotted tiger the previous afternoon, she was so worried that she gave up on it.

She decided to take the children to the wilderness on the other side of the mountain to have a look, and maybe she could dig up a few wild potatoes. Last year, my mother took them there and dug up half a basket of wild potatoes. Put the wild potato in the ashes that have just been burned and bury it, and after a while it will be cooked, and it will taste very fragrant dry noodles.

When she returned to the top of the mountain, she saw the children playing a game of playing with each other, so she said to them, "With the baskets, let's go to the back mountain." The children immediately picked up spears and baskets from the edge of the hole. The basket is not made of bamboo, but rattan. The tips of the spears were either polished with stone chips or from animal bones.

When the mother heard that they were going to the back mountain, she limped out of the cave and shouted to the black mother, "Beware of wild boars and black bears. "Because she was injured by a black bear, my mother was always thinking about the black bear.

Wu Ma answered, and walked down the slope with the children.

It was an early autumn morning, the sun had just risen from the east side of the mountain, and the morning mist had not yet dissipated on the mountain side and the riverside, and the dew was wet and covered the grass. Walking barefoot on the soft and damp grass is somewhat cool. But the early morning sun illuminated the mountains brightly, adding a lot of joy to their expedition.

They reached the mountainside and began to walk west along the gentler hills. Turning the mountainside, we went up to another mountain beam. The ridges are half barren grass and half rocks. There are sharp stone chips on the rocks, and thorns in the wild grass, so you should be very careful when walking, and if you are not careful, your feet will either be cut by sharp stones or pierced by sharp thorns. After walking through this mountain beam, you will come down to a large slope, and below the slope is a relatively gentle mountain. In the mountains, some antelopes can be seen grazing leisurely, and on the edge of the mountains, you can see a leopard or two or three wolves hiding in the grass, waiting for an opportunity to slowly approach the antelope.

They walked along the meadows on the edge of the mountain toward another high ground. After walking for about half an hour, they came to the edge of the wild potato field. However, the wild potato field is a mess, not to mention the wild potato, and even the leaves of the wild potato are invisible. This place has long been messed up and ruined by wild boars.

Wu's mother frowned for a long time before she said to the children, "Dig." ”

The children began to dig the ground with wooden shovels, but the ground was almost completely tossed by wild boars, and after digging for most of the day, only some small wild potatoes that were thicker than the roots were dug up. It wasn't until the afternoon that the sun had reached the west, and the land had almost been turned over again, but still not many wild potatoes had been dug up. The children were tired and hungry, and looking at the pitiful harvest in the basket, the children did not want to continue digging the ground.

Xiaolu said to Wu Ma in a pleading tone, "Mom, let's stop digging. ”

The son also said, "We might as well go and pick pulp leaves." "Because there will be a lot of pulp leaves, and they can pick them as long as they want to.

Mama nodded and had to take the children home because they hadn't eaten yet.

Everyone came home hungry, and when the old mother sitting in front of the door saw this little thing in the basket, she said to the black mother, "You can't eat these things, or you can plant them in the field behind the hole." ”

Wu Ma felt that her mother's words were right, so she nodded. So he went into the cave and gave everyone the meat and bones left over from yesterday for the day's food. As soon as everyone finished eating, Wu Ma asked everyone to take a wooden shovel to a wasteland under the entrance of the cave and start shoveling grass and digging the ground. Because it is a rocky mountain, the top of the mountain is almost all loose stones, but under the cave there is a relatively gentle wasteland formed by the alluvial rain, overgrown with barren deep grass, half a man high. It was not an easy task to get rid of these weeds, because the wooden shovel they used was to cut one end into a sharp and thin sheet with thicker branches, and the shovel head was not very wide and hard, and it was laborious and laborious to dig into the hard soil.

After they have dug up a small piece of land, removed the weeds, broken the clods of soil, then dug a small pit in the ground, cut the wild potato into small sections with stone chips, buried them in the ground, and then used an earthen pot to draw water from the river and pour it into the ground. An earthen pot is made from a kind of clay from the river, which is then burned on a fire.

As soon as they had planted the wild potato in the field, the wolf came back with a pheasant on his back. Wu Ma immediately went over to greet him. Because of last night's affection, Wu Ma really fell in love with him. The wolf told her that she was unlucky today and seemed a little embarrassed, but Wu Ma didn't care, because not everyone can have a big harvest every day.

The black mother rubbed her mud-stained hands on the weeds, even if she had washed her hands, invited the wolf to the mouth of the cave, made him sit on a rock, and then, taking the pheasant in his hand, began to kill the chicken. Because of the shortage of food, people came together in the morning to work or hunt, and did not eat until the afternoon was done or hunting. As soon as he eats it, he will not eat it again until this time tomorrow.

The chickens were killed, and each person was given only a very small portion of the chicken. But everyone still happily sat around the fire, roasting and eating meat with relish. Although there are few things, it tastes more delicious.

After eating, the sky was still bright. Wu Ma took the wolf's hand and took him to sit on the top of the mountain in front of the cave entrance, watching the sunset. The sun sets on the western mountain, dyeing the clouds on the side of the mountain a shade of red, which is very gorgeous. Nearby mountains and rivers are filled with mist, heralding the onset of twilight. The day is about to pass.

At this time, the wolf took out a small bunch of grapes from his bosom for Wu Ma to eat. Wu Ma picked one up and put it in her mouth, and when she ate it, it was still a little sour, but after a while, she felt a little sweet. She ate a few more and kept the rest.

Mama asked the wolf, "Where did you pick this from?"

The wolf said, "It was plucked from the edge of a cliff." ”

Wu Ma asked again, "How many are there over there?"

"There's a big area," said the wolf, "but there's a cliff to cross, and it's very dangerous." ”

Wu Ma said, "You can take us to pick it tomorrow." ”

The wolf laughed, "You're not afraid of tigers?"

Wu Ma hesitated for a moment and said, "Don't be afraid, with you, I'm not afraid of anything." ”

The wolf said, "Well, I'll take you there early tomorrow morning." ”