Go back to the valley to farm

Chapter 980
Chapter 980 Cutting the Cow

In the arena, the men dressed in bird clothes are divided into three large concentric circles according to the ethnic groups of each village. In the middle of the circles are the banners of each family. Each circle is led by an elder with the longest generation. Dancing around the banner.

All the men stepped on neat dance steps and danced lightly to the accompaniment of reeds, awning tubes and horn drums. Their graceful dance postures were not inferior to girls at all.

There are more than 50 strong young men in the periphery, holding muskets and firing in cheers, just like entering the ancient battlefield of the year.

Each circle is constantly turning and jumping.The sound of firecrackers, horns, drums, reeds, and cheers can be heard endlessly.

The activities of worshiping the ancestors lasted until [-]:[-] p.m., and the streamers were put away, and the wives of the family took them home to offer sacrifices.

Then they have to carry the soil. Each family carries a basket on their backs, loads the soil trampled by the cows, takes it back and dumps it in their own fields, which means to carry all the blessings and wealth back home.

Li Junge was amazed by the whole set of sacrificial ceremonies. Compared with the Han family, the grand ceremony of the Miao family was less solemn and solemn, but more rough, wild and jubilant.

There is no carnival tonight, because every family has to start making cattle racks.

Li Junge used wild duck eggs from space, mixed with the juice squeezed out of Ge Xianmi, made a steamed egg for Grandpa Yu, and sent it over. He was really worried about the old man's health.

Grandpa Yu himself feels fine. The masters of the inner family often adjust their breathing and meditate. They have a set of rest methods, which are just in handy now. Although there are many activities, they can still cope.

This also made the Miao family in four miles and eight towns admire Grandpa Yu. According to the old man, if you usually hide your head with drums, you will have to be supported by someone on the fourth day, and you will complete the follow-up ceremony in a drowsy manner.

The veteran of Xuantian Village, like Bifeng Mountain, is really tough!

After eating, the sky was already slightly dark, and when the father of the old man and father led his uncle and Miao baby Li Junge to the back hillside, many people had already rushed ahead of them along the way.

It was early in the morning when the cattle were cut, and the time must be hurrying.

When he came to the venue he had designated, the old man began to direct everyone to put on airs.

First dig two holes in the ground, and then insert the largest two sections of the cut maple into the holes obliquely.

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

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

After these are completed, make a looper on one side of the upper part of the intersection, and put a relatively long section of maple wood on it. When the neck of the Drum Tibetan cattle is pulled up and put on the wooden frame, it is used to compress the neck of the cow. .

Before the pit was dug, the priest had to serve three bowls of wine and read a sacrificial speech. After the pit was dug, a piece of tile was thrown into it for cushioning.

The old man explained that the tiles symbolize his own family, the maple tree shelf above symbolizes the maple tree that created the world, and the cow is the sacrifice for it.

After the wooden frame was finished, the old man used the leaves of the "Dusai" tree to cover the frame.

Why should it be covered? Because Grandpa Yu is not here, everyone has different opinions. Some say it is to prevent children from stepping on it, some say it is to prevent cattle from seeing it, and some simply say that this is a habit inherited from ancient times anyway.

After returning home, Li Junge knew that there was another important ceremony to drive away the spirit of the cow before cutting the cow in the early morning.

This ceremony is performed in the first half of the night, and the priests do it one by one according to the Drum Tibetans they are responsible for. After finishing one house, they will go to another house. The time is determined by the priests themselves.

The girls guarded the inner room, and several elders sat in the main room, and everyone chatted around, looking very calm, no one teased, and the words were very light, and the room was filled with a mysterious and solemn atmosphere, loose on the outside and tight on the inside.

The old man and Uncle Orion each held a big rooster, probably some sort of ritual.

The two kept gently stroking the chicken's feathers to calm the chicken.

Father Yin gently told Li Junge that the chicken should not make any sound when killing the chicken, otherwise it would be very unlucky, so it is very important to appease the two chickens all the time.

Everyone was like this, quietly waiting for the arrival of the priest.

Sure enough, after nine o'clock, the priest came.After chatting with Grandpa Yu in Miao language for a few words, he sat down in front of the altar and recited the sacrificial words.

In the middle of the reading, the old man and Uncle Orion started to do it.

The method of killing the chicken is very strange. It is to use a sharpened bamboo stick to insert it from the back of the chicken to kill the chicken.

What's more, when the chicken was killed, there was no sign of struggling, and Li Junge couldn't help but watch with horror. Uncle Orion had never taught him this trick. It was simply too unimaginable and mysterious.

Except for Li Junge, many people's eyes were on the priest who performed the ritual, and they didn't even notice that Uncle Orion and Old Man were killing chickens.

After the chicken was killed, the priest continued to chant the sacrificial words.Holding bamboo whips in their hands, the two uncles quietly moved to the threshold and waited.

When the priest chanted somewhere, the two uncles suddenly started shouting and waving bamboo whips to drive out some invisible things, which shocked Li Junge.

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

At this time, the old man took down the long board on which the horns were nailed at the door, and asked Li Junge to carry the cattle-cutting frame to his house, hit the frame with the horns, and then come back quickly.

Li Junge ran out carrying the rack on his shoulders, only to find that there were more than one or two young people like him running wildly on the way to the cattle farm in the back mountain.

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

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

The family returned to calm, but everyone was very nervous. In order to let everyone relax, Grandpa Yu told everyone the truth contained in the ceremony just now.

It turned out that what was driven away just now was not some evil spirit, but the spirit of the bull from the previous drum.

In the last session of Gu Zang Niu, the soul of the cow would stay in the horns of the cow until there was no new cow to replace it, and it was also being enshrined at the altar these days.

It was also for this reason that Xinniu's cow soul did not dare to offend the house.

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

After completing this set of movements, the old cow soul's mission is considered complete and can ascend to heaven. The next time this activity will be performed, the new cow soul will take its place.

After driving away the cow soul, everyone spent a long time waiting anxiously.

Almost no one knows when the bull-cutting ceremony will come, it is up to the priest to decide.

Several elders chatted about this matter, saying that the time for cutting cattle during the Guzang Festival is very inconsistent.

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

Most people are sleeping, some are crowded in the back room, some are sleeping with straw in the main room, everywhere.

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

There are also some inexplicable foreign Miao people, they are not even relatives of everyone in the village, they just follow to watch the fun.

The Miao people are warm and hospitable, and their meals are indispensable.However, there was really no room for each household, so these people gathered at the edge of the field, lit a fire and chatted, and kept guard.

After two o'clock, Grandpa Yu counted with his fingers and said, "Get ready."

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

There are also pull ropes, torches, and iron cannons.

At three o'clock in the morning, the high priest came back, and seeing that the family was well prepared, he bowed to Grandpa Yu and said with a smile, "It's refreshing to do things for the old expert."

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

The high priest respectfully took the horn, walked out of the house and blew it, and soon the originally peaceful village began to stir slightly.

Still no one spoke, but the light of torches gradually appeared on the road, one o'clock, two o'clock, and gradually gathered into a fire dragon, heading towards the cattle pen in the back mountain.

Before leading the cattle out of the stable, the priest brought a sheep and began to say the sacrifice in front of the cattle.

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 it is said that the sheep and the cow are feuds.

Half an hour later, under the light of the torches of Li Junge and others, the two uncles pulled their cattle out of the stall with a special ox rope.

Pushing and pulling, everyone pulled the ox to the maple frame outside the field, put the ox's head on the wooden fork, and put the ox rope around the crossbar under the wooden fork. Li Junge and several people held tightly together. Pulling the rope, Miao Wa and several others immediately pulled down the crossbar tied to the wooden fork, pressing down on the cow's neck so that it could not move.

The high priest lit a torch and began to look for the cow's spinner on the cow. While searching, stroking, walking miraculously, singing a deep sacrificial song.

After finding the last one, the high priest nodded in satisfaction, and nodded to the uncle, who shouted: "Pi Wa, He Miao, hold tight!"

Everyone stepped up quickly, the four people in front pulled the rope, and the four people on the side carried it horizontally. The eldest uncle raised a machete like a thin axe, first slashed at the maple frame, and then slashed at the junction of the head and neck of the big bull!
With just one blow, the spine of the big gu ox was broken, and blood spurted out from the back of the head.

The uncle immediately wiped the blood on the two horns of the cow with his hands, and took out the bamboo stick that had been prepared earlier from the back to seal the cow's tongue.With two more knives, the neck of the cow was cut off directly, but the neck was still connected.

The limp body of the big gu ox knelt down, and knelt upright in front of the maple frame.

The high priest shouted: "Good! Good omen!"

Someone nearby quickly brought a piece of satin cloth to cover the bull's body, and the blood flowed from under the cloth along the bull's body, soaking the soil, and a bloody smell filled the air.

The little uncle also made a move, but his hands and feet were not as sharp as the big uncle's, and the cow was not upright, so the big uncle ran over and directed everyone to help him straighten it.

Li Junge checked the time, it was exactly 04:30.

At this time, the iron cannon rang.

(End of this chapter)