Chapter 981: Chopping Cows

In the field, the men dressed in bird costumes are divided into three large concentric circles according to the ethnic groups of each village, and in the middle of the circle are the flags of each family, and each circle is led by an elder with the longest generation to dance around the flags.

All the men danced in neat steps, to the accompaniment of reeds, mango pipes and horns and drums, and the graceful dancing was not inferior to that of the girls.

There were more than 50 sturdy young men on the periphery, and they were also holding muskets in line to fire and cheer, just like entering the ancient battlefield of the year.

Every circle is spinning and jumping. The sound of firecrackers, horns, drums, reeds, and cheers is endless.

The worship of ancestors continues until 6 p.m., and the flags are now collected and taken home by the women of the family to worship.

Then they had to carry the soil, and each family carried a basket on their backs, and put the dirt that the oxen had trampled on, and brought it back and poured it into their fields, which meant carrying all the blessings and riches back to their homes.

The whole set of sacrifices made Li Junge breathtaking, and the Miao family's big sacrifice, compared with the Han family, was a little less solemn and solemn, but a little more rough, a little wild, and a little jubilant.

There will be no revelry tonight, because the families are going to start cutting the cows.

Li Junge used the wild duck eggs in the space, mixed them with the juice squeezed out of Gexian rice, and made a steamed egg for Grandpa Yu and sent it over, he was really worried about the old man's body.

Grandpa Yu himself feels okay, the masters of the inner family have often meditated with pranayama, they have a set of rest methods, and now it just comes in handy, although there are many activities, but they can still support it.

This also made the Miao family in Sili and Eight Towns admire Grandpa Yu, according to the old man, the general drum hides the head, and on the fourth day, it has to be supported by someone, and the follow-up ceremony is completed in a drowsy manner.

The old boss of Hanging Sky Village, like Bifeng Mountain, is really tough!

After eating, the sky was already slightly dark, and when the old man Yeyin's father led his uncle and Miao Wa Li Junge to the back hillside, there were already many people rushing in front of them along the way.

Cutting cattle is in the early hours of the morning, and the time has to be rushed.

When he came to the venue he demarcated, the old man began to direct everyone to build a shelf.

Dig two pits in the ground and then insert the two largest sections of the maple wood in the pit diagonally.

Intersect these two sections of maple to form a wooden fork and tie the intersection with rattan.

A small section of maple is tied horizontally in the lower half of the intersection to form a triangle and play a stabilizing role.

After these are done, a looper is made on the upper side of the intersection and a longer section of maple is put on, which is used to press the neck of the cow when it is pulled together and placed on the wooden frame.

Before digging the pit, the priest had to lay out three bowls of wine, recite a verse, and when the pit was dug, throw a tile into it to cushion.

The old man explained that the tiles symbolize his own family, the maple shelf on the top symbolizes the maple tree of creation, and the ox is the sacrifice to it.

After the wooden frame was completed, the old man covered the frame with the leaves of the "Dusai" tree.

Why do you want to cover it, Grandpa Yu is not there, everyone has different opinions, some say that they don't let children cross, some say that they don't let cows see it, and some simply say that this is a habit that has been inherited from ancient times anyway.

When he returned home, Li Junge learned that there was another important ritual to drive the cow's soul before cutting the cow in the early morning.

This ritual takes place in the first half of the night, and the priests do it one by one according to the drum collectors they are responsible for, and then go to the other after they have done it, at a time that the priests themselves decide.

The girls stayed in the inner room, several elders sat in the hall, everyone chatted around, it seemed very calm, no one laughed, the words were very light, the room was filled with a kind of loose outside and tight inside, mysterious and solemn atmosphere.

The old man and Uncle Orion each hold a big rooster, which is estimated to be a set of rituals.

The two kept gently stroking the feathers of the chicken to calm the chicken.

Father Yin gently told Li Junge that when killing chickens, he couldn't let the chickens make a sound, otherwise it would be very unlucky, so it was a very important thing to appease the two chickens all the time.

In this way, everyone quietly waited for the priest to come.

Sure enough, just after nine o'clock, the priest came. After chatting with Grandpa Yu in Hmong for a few words, he began to sit down in front of the altar and recite the sacrificial words.

In the middle of the reading, the old man and Uncle Orion began to move.

The method of killing chickens is very strange, using a sharpened bamboo skewer to insert it from the back of the chicken and kill the chicken.

And when the chicken was killed, there was no sign of struggle, and he didn't say a word the whole time, Li Junge couldn't help but look creepy, Uncle Orion had never taught him this hand, it was simply too unbelievable and mysterious.

Except for Li Junge, many people's eyes were on the priest who did the business, and they didn't even notice the process of Uncle Orion and the old man killing the chicken.

When the chicken was finished, the priest continued to recite the sacrificial words. The two uncles took bamboo whips in their hands and quietly moved to the threshold to wait.

When the priest chanted somewhere, the two uncles suddenly began to shout, waving bamboo whips to drive something out of sight, startling Li Junge.

During the whole process, no one except the priest and the two uncles made a sound.

At this time, the old man took down the long board at the door with the drum and hidden horns, and asked Li Junge to carry it to his own cattle cutting rack, and then hurry back after hitting the frame with the horns.

Li Junge ran out with the shelf, and when he went out, he found that there were more than one or two young people like him, all of whom were running wildly on the way to the cattle cutting farm in the back mountain.

There was no time to greet each other, everyone didn't speak, and after completing the task, they ran back, and the old man took the horn and hung it back to the door.

The atmosphere in the room was only now relaxed, and Li Junge found that the priest was gone, and it seemed that he had gone to preside over the ceremony for the next family.

The family regained peace, but everyone was very nervous, and in order to relax everyone, Grandpa Yu told everyone the truth contained in the ceremony just now.

It turned out that what had just been driven away was not some evil ghost, but the soul of the cow that had been hidden in the last session.

In the last drum Tibetan cow, the soul of the ox will always be in the horns of the ox just now until there is no new cow to replace it, and it will also be worshiped at the altar these days.

It is also for this reason that the cow soul of the new cow does not dare to offend the house.

The sacrifice just now was to invite the old cow soul out of the altar, and then the old deflated master asked Li Junge to do the set of actions, which was to let the old cow soul drive the new cow soul to the maple shelf.

After completing this set of actions, the task of the old bull soul is completed, and it can ascend to heaven, and the next set of activities will be replaced by the new bull soul.

After the exorcism of the bull soul, for a long time, everyone spent anxiously waiting.

Almost no one knows exactly when the cattle cutting ceremony will take place, and it is up to the priests to decide.

Several elders chatted about this matter, saying that the timing of the cattle cutting was very inconsistent every time the Drum Tibetan Festival was chopped.

Sometimes it happens after midnight, sometimes it happens after three o'clock, and some even happen after the rooster crows.

Most of the people slept, some in the back room, some in the hall with straw on the floor, everywhere.

But there are also many who still sit by the fire and stay up late.

There are also some inexplicable foreign Miao people, who are not even relatives of everyone in the village, and they are purely following to see the excitement.

The Miao family is hospitable, and meals are indispensable. However, the families really could not live, so these people gathered by the field, lit the fire and chatted, and kept watch.

After two o'clock, Grandpa Yu's fingers were counted and said, "Get ready." ”

Li Junge and Miao Wa began to prepare the guys, two wide and long machetes, weighing more than ten catties.

There are also drawstrings, torches, and iron cannons.

At three o'clock in the morning, the high priest came back, and when he saw that the family had been properly prepared, he bowed to Grandpa Yu and said with a smile: "Doing things for the old connoisseur is cool." ”

Grandpa Yu took out a horn and handed it to him, and said with a smile: "Don't talk about it, hurry up, don't miss the auspicious time." ”

The high priest respectfully took the trumpet, went out of the house and blew it, and soon the otherwise peaceful stockade began to stir gently.

Still no one spoke, but the light of torches gradually appeared on the road, and at one point, two o'clock, it gradually converged into a fire dragon, heading towards the back mountain bullpen.

Before leading the cow out of the pen, the priest brought a sheep and began to recite the sacrificial words in front of the herd.

The old man explained that this meant that it was not the man who wanted to kill the cow, but the sheep who wanted to kill the cow, because the legend says that the sheep and the cow are feuding.

Half an hour later, under the light of torches from Li Junge and others, the two uncles used a special cow rope sleeve to pull their cattle out of the cowpen.

Everyone pushed and pulled, pulled the cow to the maple frame outside the cattle cutting field, pulled the cow's head on the wooden fork, and pulled the cow rope around the horizontal wood under the wooden fork, Li Junge and several people tightly pulled the rope, and Miao Wa and several other people immediately pulled down the horizontal wood tied to the wooden fork, pressed the cow's neck, and made it unable to move.

The high priest lit a torch and began to look for the cow, stroking and stroking as he searched, and sang a deep sacrificial song with miraculous steps.

After the last spin was finished, the high priest nodded with satisfaction, nodded to the eldest uncle, and the eldest uncle shouted: "Piwa, He Miao, hold your hands tight!"

Everyone hurriedly stepped up, the four people in front pulled the cow rope, the four people on the side pressed and carried it horizontally, and the eldest uncle raised a machete like a thin axe, first cut at the maple frame, and then slashed at the junction of the head and neck of the big bull!

With this blow alone, the spine of the big bull was broken, and blood spurted out of the back of the head.

The eldest uncle immediately wiped the blood on the two horns with his hands, and took out the bamboo skewers that had been prepared long ago from his back to sign the cow's tongue. With two knives, the cow's neck vertebrae were directly cut off, but the neck was still connected.

The big bull's weak body knelt down and knelt down in front of the maple shelf.

The high priest shouted, "Good!

Someone next to him quickly brought a piece of satin cloth to cover the cow's body, and the blood remained from under the cloth along the body of the cow, soaking the soil, and a bloody smell filled the air.

The younger uncle also did it, but his hands and feet were not as sharp as the eldest uncle, and the cow was not corrected, so the eldest uncle ran over and commanded everyone to help him straighten it out.

Li Junge looked at the time, it was just half past four.

At this time, the iron cannon sounded.