The Autumn of Matriarchal Society (Novella) Zhang Baotong 2018.10.10

We modern people often see animals all over the world looking for food on TV and movies, as if the whole content and meaning of their existence is to eat. In fact, the same is true of people, if you don't have food, you can't survive. It's just that the food sources of our modern people are so abundant that people don't have to worry about where their next meal will be at all. So, we don't think about it at all and don't worry about not having food. However, in the early days of matriarchal society, the tools and methods of labor were still very backward, and food was also very scarce, so our ancestors, like other animals, were looking for food everywhere every day, and lived a difficult life every day.

Autumn always brings some food, and people can go hunting, fishing, or even picking pulp leaves or fir mushrooms in the woods. However, winter is cold and unforgiving, the cold wind will sweep everything down, and the ice and snow will cover the whole earth, testing people's ability to survive with extreme cruelty and harshness.

Autumn is passing day by day, and winter is approaching day by day. There was silence in the clear sky, and there was no trace of geese flying south. She remembered that the last time she saw geese was more than ten days ago, in the evening, when about 20 geese let out miserable cries and scattered in the sky towards the south. At the time, she wondered why they had left that night, and whether they didn't want to leave home.

In fact, their itinerary has been set a long time ago, because the winter in the north is very cold, and there is almost no food, and they have to go to a warm place to find food. There must be a lot of food over there, or they will all fly over there? But she was more envious of the little birds of the woods, which flew and sang freely every day, never sorrow or sorrow, and never worried about food. It's as if they have ready-made food whenever they want to eat. But other animals are not as lucky as they are. In winter, they have to store fat and energy, just like people store food.

A few days ago, Wu's mother took her two daughters to catch some more fish by the river. The day before yesterday, they, led by the leopard, caught two small rock sheep in a sleeve on a mountain side. They kept the two little rock sheep in the little hole and fed them. Yesterday, they picked a few more baskets of pulp leaves. Smoked and air-dried meat and dried fish hung everywhere in the caves and rock walls of their homes, and the ground in front of the door was covered with dried fir mushrooms and wood pulp leaves.

However, there are not many good days like that. There was a cold wind blowing last night, and it was a lot colder in the cave. The mother was coughing all night, barely stopping, so that Wu Ma barely slept well. Wu Ma was woken up by the cold several times, and each time she woke up, she wrapped herself tightly in animal skins, but she still felt a little cold, so she got up and added firewood to the fire to make it bigger.

The fire burned greatly, and the cave soon warmed up. However, my mother kept coughing. From the sound of my mother's cough, I can clearly feel that my mother's illness is getting worse and worse, and she can no longer resist the colder and colder temperatures. This made her feel a little worried. My mother has been sick for so long, and it seems that she is not getting better. For the sick who does not get well, she should be given a separate place to stay so that he can fend for himself, because such patients can easily spread the disease to others. But Wu Ma has not done this, not because she is her mother, but because this time is very busy, they have to go out every day, and when they go out, they need someone to stay at home, not for fear of others stealing, but to watch that the fire cannot be extinguished. As soon as the fire is extinguished, not only do you have to go to someone else's house with gifts to borrow the fire, but it will also delay many things and cause a lot of trouble

However, listening to her mother's coughing so much, Wu Ma could only make up her mind to send her mother to a separate place. She had already found the place, in the cave under the mountain on the back side of the mountain. The hole is not very big, but it seems that there is a fox living in it, just drive the fox away and put some hay in the hole. This matter must be hurried, otherwise, if someone in this family is infected, it will be a big trouble.

Originally, Wu's mother wanted to spend half a day to settle her mother. I don't want to, when I get up in the morning, I see that the sky is not good, like it is going to rain. Wu Ma called her daughter to hurry down to the river at the bottom of the mountain, put away the firewood drying by the river, and piled it up in a small hole. Otherwise, as soon as it rains, the firewood will get wet. So, the mother and daughter ran up and down the hill, carrying the firewood back and forth on their shoulders, so that they could carry the firewood back to the house before it rained.

Before they could finish carrying the firewood, they saw the leopard coming from the path at the bottom of the mountain, and wanted to cross the river to hunt in the forest. Wu Ma beckoned to the leopard.

The leopard came over and asked, "Is there something wrong with me?"

Wu Ma said to him, "You help me go and get rid of the fox in the cave at the bottom of the back mountain, I want my mother to live in it." ”

When the leopard heard this, he asked, "Mommy, it's no longer good?"

Wu Ma nodded, and said with some sadness, "I'm afraid it won't work, she's been coughing all night." ”

"Otherwise," said the leopard, "I will kill the fox so that it will not be haunted by its nest." ”

Wu Ma said, "Whatever you want." ”

Wu Ma and Leopard immediately followed the path by the river to the south, crossed a mountain range, descended a large slope, and came to the cave. The cave is a natural stone cave, and the entrance is not big, just enough for one person to enter. When they came to the cave, the leopard asked the mother and daughter to block the entrance to the cave side by side, and he took his spear and went into the hole. The cave was quiet, not like there were foxes. Suddenly, however, with a whoosh, a fox leaped out of the hole beside them, and ran into a grove of trees.

They entered the cave, which was dark, full of the smell of foxes, and a piece of sand, presumably where the fox slept. Because the leopard was busy hunting, Wu Ma let him go and gathered some hay with his daughters in the grass outside the cave. Because it was late autumn, dry grass was everywhere. After a while, they each picked up a large handful of hay, carried it into the hole, and spread the hay on the sandy ground so that it could be used as a bed for the old mother. Because the fox has already run away, they need not be afraid, because they know that as long as the fox smells a person, it will not go into the hole again.

Laying hay in the hole, the mother and her daughter returned to the river. It was already past noon, and the sky was a little gloomy, but it had not rained, and the wind was a little cool. was about to send her mother to that hole, although this was helpless, but it still made her a little embarrassed emotionally.

She stood by the river at the bottom of the hill, pondering for a long time, still feeling a little dilemma, but she once again made up her mind that she must send her mother to a place where there was no one, or she would surely infect others with her disease. However, she felt that it was inconvenient for her to come forward, so she said to her daughter, "You two go and send Grandma to that cave together." ”

As soon as Dalu heard this, his brows furrowed, and he said, "Let's go?"

Wu Ma said in a tough tone, "Yes, you two go together." ”

Xiaolu also said with a displeased face, "If grandma is gone, who will watch the fire at home?"

Wu's mother knows that her daughter doesn't want her grandmother to leave the house, because once she leaves the house, her mother may not live until tomorrow. But she had to make them understand what she meant, and she said to them, "Grandma's illness is not cured, and it is the most contagious disease at this time." If this disease spreads to us, we will die together. So saying, he pushed his daughter and said, "Go quickly." ”

Of course, the daughter knew her mother's helplessness, so she lowered her head and walked towards the top of the mountain.

Seeing that her daughter was about to reach the top of the mountain, Wu Ma hid behind a tree. She didn't want to see her mother leave, and she didn't want her mother to see her. Thinking that my mother raised me and taught me so many principles and ways of life, I feel very sad. This is not the first time that she has been sad for a long time, she has been thinking about this for a long time, and it is because of her reluctance that she has put it off again and again, and has not done it, but now it is not okay not to do it.

Thinking like this, tears poured out of her eyes and hung all over her face. She wiped her tears as she looked into the distance of the river, praying that her mother would die peacefully and not suffer too much pain.

At this moment, a man suddenly appeared in front of her and startled her. When she saw it, she was taken aback, it turned out to be her son Pig. I haven't seen it for a day or two, and the pig seems to have grown into an adult, and its hair has grown and its size has grown, as if even its beard has grown. He held a spear in his hand, a short arrow on his back, an animal skin, and a small antelope tied to his back.

Wu Ma was pleasantly surprised, hurriedly wiped the tears on her face with her hands, and couldn't help shouting, "My son!"

The pig also shouted affectionately, "Mom, why are you crying?"

Wu Ma immediately smiled and said, "Mom is happy to see you!"

The son asked, "What about the sisters?"

"They're at home." She didn't want her son to know that his grandmother was no longer good. To divert the conversation, she asked, "Where did you hunt this antelope?"

"I hunted in the woods where you took me, and this antelope likes to eat pulp leaves." ”

Wu Ma asked again, "Who have you been to these days?"

The son said, "I've been to Wildflower's house, and I've been to Little Rabbit's house. ”

Of course, Mama knows about wildflowers and bunnies. Wildflower is the leopard's little sister, and the rabbit is a girl from a family in Beishan. When I heard that my son already had a woman, I felt that my son had really grown up. She stroked her son's hair with her hand and said earnestly, "Winter is coming, you have to take good care of yourself and stock up on more food. ”

The son shook his head slightly and said, "Mom, I won't let you look down on me. ”

When Wu Ma heard this, she was worried and happy. The worry is that the son still remembers the day she locked him out, and the joy is that he feels that his son has really grown up. Of course, she didn't want her son to be unable to live one day, so he had to beg for her. What she had just said was just a kind word.

After saying a few words, the son was going to give the prey he was carrying to his mother. But my mother resolutely refused, saying, "Bring it to your beloved, and your mother will be happy to see you living well." As he spoke, he pushed his son hard and said, "Go find your beloved." ”

The pig waved to his mother and walked towards the path that led to the north mountain. Wu's mother looked at her son's back affectionately, and her mood felt much better. When her son's back disappeared around the bend of the path, tears welled up in her eyes again.

After a while, she saw her daughter running down the hill, shouting at her, but she could not hear them because they were too far away, but she could see that they were very flustered. She asked aloud, "What's wrong?"

The daughter ran up to her, panting and saying, "Grandma, she's gone?"

She asked, "Not where?"

The youngest daughter said, "When we got home, we didn't see her. ”

The eldest said, "We looked around, but we didn't see her." ”

As soon as Wu Ma heard this, she hurriedly ran along the path towards the mountain. She ran to the house in one go. The fire was still burning in the cave, but there was no one in the house. She ran out of the cave and stood on the top of the high hill to look around, but everywhere there was a gloomy autumn color of emptiness and loneliness. Looking further away, I saw a few vultures hovering and flying above the top of a mountain not far away. She knew that on that mountain, someone had died there. It wasn't what she saw, but what her mother said. And her mother also told her that if one day she couldn't live, she would also die on that mountain.

When the eldest daughter saw her mother's eyes fixed on the mountain, she said, "Grandma has gone to that mountain?"

Wu Ma nodded.

The eldest daughter said, "Shall we go to her?"

Wu Ma shook her head and said, "Let her go." Because she felt that her mother had lived to the end of her life and that it was time to go where she was going.

2018.10.17 The first draft was held in Xi'an

2018.10.21 Second draft

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