When I got out of the house and saw everyone's clothes clearly, I couldn't help but be handsome again, especially Zhou Tong, I don't know if his set of clothes was too small, and the long shirts and trousers were all strangled, which looked nondescript. While complaining that the owner of the house was not kind, he pulled the placket of his clothes, and asked Sheng Shiyao with a bitter face if he could not go to participate in the sacrificial activities, and the answer was naturally no.

When I got outside, I didn't need anyone to guide me, and I saw the place of worship at a glance. At the foot of the mountain, deep in the tribe, the bonfire had been lit and illuminated very brightly. The tribesmen I saw during the day also changed into their own costumes and walked over there. We walked there together in the middle. Looking up, I saw that on the mountainside about three meters high, there was a platform extending from the mountain, and there was a middle-aged man who was nearly fifty years old standing on it, dressed in black and green tribal clothes, wearing a crown and hat, and there were many livestock piled up on both sides of him, which should be a tribute to the mountain god.

From time to time, I heard people calling the chief to the person on the stage, it seems that this person is the leader of this tribe, and he should preside over this event tonight. I don't know what kind of sacrifice it is, or if it's the first time I've seen such a scene.

When the people were about to gather, they saw a man from the crowd bow to the chief on the stage and say, "Chief Abrahon, can you arrange for someone to sweep the house?" "I'm amazed, this person is Abrach? Turning his head sideways, he asked Sheng Shiyao with his eyes, he nodded slightly, it was really Ah Brown in the hidden house, it turned out that he was just old in voice, not old.

Seeing that Abra nodded, he ordered a few young men to come out of the crowd, and among them was Uba, and then they left the crowd and walked to the tribal house behind them. I'm a little curious, I just heard that they are going to clean the house, are they going to clean the house one by one? What does this have to do with sacrifice?

"It's not to clean the house, it's to check if anyone in the house hasn't come yet, so be sure to clear the house." Sheng Shiyao explained to me in a low voice. I couldn't help but wonder, "How do you know?" His dark eyes swept over me and he said, "Think with your head." "At first, I didn't think there was anything wrong with what he said, but after a while, I realized that he was referring to me not using my brain.

Uba and the others soon returned, reporting to Abraon that the house had been cleaned and that all the clansmen had arrived. So Ah Brown announced the beginning of the sacrifice on the high platform, and I waited to see what the sacrifice pattern was, but I saw someone in front of me and began to walk up the mountain. What's going on? Isn't the sacrifice here? I instinctively went to see Sheng Shiyao, but I saw that he also frowned.

Hearing Zhou Tong pulling our house owner to ask what this was about, the house owner replied that this is called "hiding from the mountain", and the sacrifice only needs to leave a special person at the foot of the mountain, and the rest of the people have to go up the mountain. It is a ritual of the Buyi people to worship the mountain god, legend has it that every year today is the birthday of the mountain god, the mountain god will release many insects to mutilate the crops, or make a haunt for people, and then the mountain will be sacrificed by a special person there, the people go up the mountain to worship, the mountain god will calm down the anger, so that after that, there will be no more disasters throughout the year.

Legend has it that there is naturally an element of exaggeration, and we are in the local area, so we can only follow the local customs and follow the people to climb the mountain. The line was long, and there were only torches at the head and tail and in the middle, which was another rule, and you should not carry too much fire up the mountain. First, there are many forests in the mountains, and the vision is not good at night, and it is easy to burn; The second is that on the birthday of the mountain god, there is more fear of fire disturbing the sleep of the mountain god. The ritual was deliberately held at night, which also had a special meaning, but everyone was in a hurry and did not have time to explain it to us.

It can be regarded as a bad year, when is it better not to enter the tribe, but just in time for their mountain god's birthday, to join in the excitement of this sacrificial activity. I guess I won't wander in this mountain forest all night. I thought I was going to climb to the top of the mountain, but I didn't expect that after climbing for nearly two hours, the team stopped, and then everyone took the initiative to kneel on the ground and bow reverently.

All of a sudden, it was obvious that only a dozen of us were standing there, staring wide-eyed. Someone noticed our abnormality, raised his head to look over, and only heard Wuba in front of him say to Zhuang Yu in a low voice: "Brother Yu, be wronged." "In the end, we had no choice but to fall on one knee and crouch down to bury our heads, so that no one else noticed.

After arriving here, even the three clusters of torches were extinguished, no one spoke, and the dark space was quiet only to hear the chirping of mountain insects. As the minutes ticked by, I felt more and more sore, but I could see the line in front of me through the moonlight peeking in through the cracks in the trees, as if they were still. How religious is this?

When the first exclamation came from the front, one after another people jumped out of the ground, the crowd was large, and the entire mountain road was crowded, and I don't know what happened, I took the opportunity to stand up from the ground, my legs and feet were sore, and one did not stand firm and stumbled to Sheng Shiyao's side, and was held by him with his hand. The man in front of me screamed and fell backwards, and he quickly dragged me out of the mountain path to avoid being hit by the crowd.

There seemed to be several very fast animals flashing in front of me, small in size, and they had passed through the feet of people, about the size of ordinary dogs, but because there was no fire, they were so fast that they could not see at all. Finally, someone lit a torch, and then heard the shout: "It's a raccoon dog!" Grab them! But soon someone above shouted: "Crazy? When is it now, and can you catch it? ”

No one spoke in the commotion, and it seemed that all the usual hunting had to be postponed during the rituals. It is estimated that the fur of this southern raccoon dog is very valuable, so as soon as the tribesmen find out that they are infested, they want to hunt it.

After being interrupted by the animals, they did not see them continue, but stood on the mountain path and began to talk. Seeing this scene, I couldn't help but be a little dumbfounded, their Buyi customs are too peculiar, one moment they are so pious and silent, and the next moment they are so casual. After asking, I learned that this is also a kind of ritual, during the sacrifice at the bottom of the mountain, when they hide in the mountain, young men and women socialize, and the elderly exchange their usual work experience. After the sacrifice is completed, there will be a special person to come up to the mountain to announce, at this time those who want to stay in the mountain and wait for dawn to hunt can stay, and those who want to go back to rest can rest.

According to them, there is also a reason why they bow down the mountainside, because there is also a tribe living on the mountain, and according to legend, this tribe lives a very powerful witch god who is very skilled in witchcraft. In the past, the chief of Abra negotiated with their chieftain that the hill below the halfway point would be a common hill, and above the mountainside would be their territory, and the tribes above the mountain and below would not invade each other.

Hearing this, I couldn't help frowning, but I didn't expect that in this deep mountain and old forest, the land was still divided, and I felt like the emperor of the soil occupying the entire mountain. Obviously, the group that lived on the mountain was fiercer than the one at the foot of the mountain, and one tribe occupied half of the mountain, and the other half was divided equally among the remaining tribes. It can be seen everywhere, the word unfair.

Noticing that Sheng Shiyao's expression was different in the darkness, his eyes had been staring in the darkness above, I pulled the corner of his clothes and asked, "What's wrong?" He pulled me to my side, walked out of the trail again, and whispered, "Wait, no matter what happens, you can't leave me half a step." I listened, "What will happen?" ”

"Suddenly there is a raccoon dog jumping in the mountains, and running away in a panic, I am afraid that there is a strong enemy to chase after it, the natural enemy of the raccoon dog is the wolf and the lynx, the lynx is a cold-loving animal, often haunted in the alpine region, it is unlikely to appear here. So it's most likely a wolf, and if one or two are not afraid, then they're afraid that they're wolves. ”

As soon as he finished talking about the wolves, he heard a long howl of "whoosh" sounding in the mountains and forests, and suddenly everyone who was still whispering and talking stopped and looked around. After a few seconds, another wolf howl came, followed by the howls of the wolves, and suddenly the crowd was in a commotion, and someone shouted: "Oh no, the wolves are infested!" Hurry down the mountain! But there are still people who insist: "No, the sacrifice at the foot of the mountain is not completed, we can't go down, it will alarm the mountain gods." ”

I really want to scold them for being stupid, when is this coming, return to the mountain god, don't the mountain god is not alarmed, and his life is gone. But we also know that at this time, people are soft-spoken, and no one will listen to us at all, under Zhuang Yu's deep order, our people all flashed out of the mountain road, hooked the trunk of the tree and slid down the mountain. But after only walking a distance, we were discovered by the tribesmen, and some people stepped forward to stop us, and one person spoke out, and everyone blamed us, and we were not allowed to escape privately.

For a while, we were stuck there, and we couldn't go up or down, unless we were going to knock these people down and shuttle down the mountains and forests. But in their tribe, if they act so impulsively, I'm afraid we don't want to stay here, even Uba can't help it. After this delay, the wolf howl in my ears became closer and closer, and suddenly I saw a green light flashing in the forest, and more and more, and I looked at it, it was a wolf approaching us, and it was in the form of outflanking, pressing into this place from the dense forest on both sides of the mountain road.

Zhuang Yu took the lead in attacking, put down the person who was blocking in front of him, and roared in a low voice: "Rush down the mountain with me." But being pulled hard by Sheng Shiyao, the eyes of the two met in the air, and for some reason, Zhuang Yu actually changed his decision: "Go up the mountain!" "I don't know what kind of medicine they are selling, but the situation is urgent, and we can't hesitate to push away the crowd and run up the mountain road.

When the men saw that we were not rushing down the hill, they did not come to stop us, but shouted in a hurry to light the fire. The masses have eyes, so many pairs of green and faint wolf eyes are constantly approaching, it is impossible not to see them, and regardless of whether the fire will alarm the mountain gods, they all light torches on the spot. They were born and raised in the mountains, and they knew the habits of wolves, and wolves were afraid of fire, so when clusters of fire were lit, the wolves hiding in the shadows stopped, but they did not flee, they seemed to be waiting for the leader's orders.

It took a lot of effort for us to squeeze through the side aisle to the front of the line, led by a middle-aged man of about forty years old, who should have some status in the tribe. But seeing that he had a shotgun in his hand, he was organizing some young men who also carried shotguns to arm them.