Everyone carefully observed the details of the ancient locust, the main branches and trunks are mostly thicker than the human waist, the surface is covered with gray-black mottled rough bark, the end of the small branch is luxuriant Cistanche oil is bright and huge, more vigorous than the branches in the middle of summer, it can be said that the sky covers half of the cave, such a large ancient locust tree, the age is at least more than 10,000 years, and the history of Kyushu may not be as old as this ancient locust tree.

What is even more bizarre is that the top of the branch is shaped like a human arm, these arms are also bark for bark, the trunk for the fingers, the surface is entwined with vines, slipping countless roots, piled up between the pages of the locust tree, disappearing from time to time, like thousands of hands, scurrying around in the canopy.

At this scene, everyone was puzzled, and they didn't know what an ancient locust tree was.

"Brother, why do you have hands on this locust tree?"

Yue Ercang's words made everyone's hearts sink more and more the more they looked at them, and these black hands and claws were like ghost claws, scratching people's hearts like a bird's nest.

"Isn't it not necessary to have hands?"

Yue Qingshan raised his old eyes to look at the ancient locust tree and explained: "Since ancient times, the old locust tree is the first spiritual tree in the world, flowers, leaves, fruits, and fruits can be used in medicine, and even the bark of the locust tree can be ground into powder to make a hungry bun, once a famine occurs, the old locust tree is to save the lives of many people, in the folk, next to an old locust tree, it is often the Huai Temple, the City God Temple, there are people to set up a platform to worship, offering incense continuously. ”

"Don't you think it's strange that there is such a locust tree in such a place?"

Yue Guanchao listened to the words of the second uncle, and he was indeed suspicious, he had also seen thousands of years of old locust trees, although they were old, they were only a lot thicker than ordinary ancient trees, like the old locust in front of him, which was as thick as a house, and the age was really tens of thousands of years, or even tens of thousands of years, which also means that this ancient locust was not planted in the Li Tang era, and it is very likely that it was left by the ancestors of ancient Chu.

Song Siyuan stared at the ancient locust tree and said, "Second Uncle Yue, I have also heard what you said, and there was also a sketch in the Ming Dynasty's "Amazing Case". ”

During the Jiajing period of the Zhu Dynasty, there was a scholar who came to Beijing to take the exam and lived in Huaishu Lane, he was very curious about why the street was called Huaishu, and after inquiring with the shopkeeper, this running hall took him to the end of the street, and he saw the old locust tree spreading around the street from afar. ”

It is said that this old locust tree existed when it hit the previous dynasty, it has grown for about four or five hundred years, during which it was also struck by lightning once, the heart of the tree was burned out and still relied on a thick layer of skin to live, and even more and more luxuriant, gradually covering the houses on both sides of the street, everyone said that the old locust tree has experienced a catastrophe and does not die, and has a spirit.

Since then, this ancient locust tree has been worshiped by the surrounding people as the old locust god, and also built a large wagon locust temple under the tree, the spring flowers bloom in April and May, the small people around have to take the meat to offer incense to worship the locust tree god, just full of pot offerings can put out several streets.

I heard that the old locust tree at that time was really through the gods, but where the people sincerely kneeled and worshipped, they would move without wind and the tree shook more than once, and several baskets of locust flowers fell, after they ate, even the pain on the body disappeared, it can be seen that its spirituality was passed on to the gods, and gradually spread ten to hundred, and even the whole street was named after the locust tree.

Stories like this can be seen everywhere, during the Jin Dynasty, there was a scholar of the Northern Dynasty Liang Wenyan stayed overnight in the Huaishu Temple, met the Huai Girl, Li Tang Dynasty old locust tree became a family and a country, Li Gongzuo Nanke a dream, the pre-Qin Magu Xianghuai, the dream to the people to build a temple for her, so many legendary stories of the ancient locust tree, the locust tree in Oriental mythology belongs to the existence of both gods and ghosts, do good things for the gods and do bad things for the ghosts, this belief is very similar to the witch sacrifice culture.

The locust tree is likely to be related to the witch sacrifice culture before the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, when the productivity was not developed, the branches and leaves of the locust tree were edible, which was equivalent to food for the ancient ancestors, giving the locust tree spirituality, and the mountains and rivers were gods, and the rivers were no different from the gods, and it was a myth of the living environment.

It is said that in the era of witch festivals before the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Wuxian of the tribe often planted big trees in the areas inhabited by the race, and the locust trees were often selected as sacred trees because of their many fruits and flowers.

This high matchmaker mother temple is very similar to the ancestral hall and ancestral shrine of the descendants, and every spring when the young men and women of the tribe are happy, they will thank the gods for giving them offspring and hold a reproduction ceremony under the auspices of Wu Xian.

Generally speaking, the high medium mother temple has the responsibility of sacrifice and reproduction, and the worship is either the grandmother of the entire ethnic group, or the originator of the ethnic group, the matchmaker god sacrificed by the Xia Dynasty people is Nuwa, the mother temple matchmaker god of Yin merchants is Jian Di, and the mother temple matchmaker god of the Zhou people is Jiang Yuan, no matter who it is, as long as it is invited into this mother temple, it will become the high matchmaker god of the ethnic group.

After Song Siyuan said this, she observed the ancient locust tree, and her tone became mysterious: "The ancient locust tree here, I think it also has this meaning, as for why there are so many hands, it is probably related to the customs of the ancestors." ”