back to prehistoric savage

Chapter 5
When the sun set on the top of the highest mountain, the women who went out to collect came back silently, with heavy steps and tired looks.

Seeing the half-full bamboo baskets in their hands, the grandmother and the elderly and children who stayed in the cave felt heavy, and their stomachs seemed to be even hungrier.

The harvest of the women was almost the same as that of the previous few days. After the cold weather, many food sources including ferns and roses almost stopped growing, and the fruits and rhizomes they could collect were less and less. Fortunately, There are many slightly pointed winter bamboo shoots growing in the bamboo forest.

What should I do after the winter bamboo shoots are dug?

Lan Hua poured out the winter bamboo shoots from the bamboo basket and asked, "Have Tiger Head and the others come back yet?"

"not yet."

"They must have met a big guy."

"hope so."

Grandma said this, knowing better than anyone in her heart that the most likely situation is that the men did not hunt enough wild animals, so they had to go further afield to find food.

Everyone stopped talking and just peeled the bamboo shoots.

Lan Hua looked around and wondered, "Where are Xiao and Tian? Haven't come back yet?"

"No."

"Didn't they go to the river? How long can they go?"

Lan Hua worried about her son, walked outside the cave, took a deep breath, and shouted down the mountain.

After waiting for a while, she heard the cry of oh-oh from the bottom of the mountain, and her heart fell back into her stomach.

Going back to the campfire and sitting down, when the winter bamboo shoots were all peeled, she picked up an unformed flint knife and continued to polish it, muttering: "These two children are really ignorant, and they are not young anymore. , It’s fine if you don’t help, and you still have the mood and strength to go to the river to play in the water.”

"That boy said, what is he doing by the river, fishing?"

Honghua has always had a good memory. She actually remembered that Zhang Tian said fishing, but she didn't understand what fishing was, so she thought it was Zhang Tian's slip of the tongue and corrected it for him without authorization.

"Come on!" Orchid snorted, "I don't know them yet? It's fishing, but once you get to the river, you must just focus on playing with the water! Bai, Caitou, leaves, and grass flowers, you must not learn from owls and sky. ,Did you hear that?"

She took the opportunity to educate several other younger children.

Living in a cave, there are not many topics to talk about every day, and parenting is one of the things I never get tired of talking about. When it comes to this, the women get excited and start chatting.

At this moment, the men returned to the cave with even heavier legs and even more dejected expressions.

His eyes swept across the man's face, and his heart immediately fell to the bottom. Looking at their hands, almost everyone returned empty-handed, only the tiger head was carrying two bamboo rats, two hares and five palm-sized birds.

More than a dozen men went hunting for a day, and only brought back such a few things, which shows that there are really no wild animals left in this mountain.

The sun is setting, the sky is getting darker, and the cloud is covering the earth and everyone's head.

The food is piled up in one place, and if such a small amount is distributed to everyone, then everyone will starve. If it is only distributed to some people, who should it be distributed to?who?

Children are staring at it eagerly, it is time to grow their bodies, they need it.

Pregnant women stare eagerly, with the future of the tribe in their stomachs, and they need it too.

Qingzhuang stared eagerly, in order to have the strength to go out hunting and gathering tomorrow, they also needed it.

No one spoke, and despair was quietly brewing in the silence.

The distribution of food has always been in the responsibility of Grandma. Although it is difficult, she has to make a choice.

She was about to speak when she suddenly heard the sound of panting from outside the cave.

"Mom! Come help!"

Lan Hua immediately jumped up and ran out of the cave in a hurry, and turned back after a while, jumping and shouting: "Come on! Fish! Lots of fish!"

As soon as the crowd rushed out, Zhang Tian and Xiao climbed up carrying a bamboo cage full of fish, and put the bamboo cage in front of the crowd. He gasped for air.

Zhang Tian was dizzy for a while, his breathing felt like a knife was cut, his throat and nose were aching, and Xiao's legs and feet were convulsed.

Originally with an empty belly and climbing mountains with heavy loads, that is to say, the physical resistance of primitive people, but for modern people, it would be a long time ago to belch farts.

They collapsed exhausted, but the crowd broke out in excited cries.

People rushed forward frantically, and picked up the bamboo basket weighing sixty or seventy catties by the tiger's head. Judging by his appearance, he still had strength left.

The men crowded around the tiger's head and scrambled to touch the fish in the cage, as if they were holding the Hercules Cup. Even a substitute who sat on the bench for the whole game was honored and had to rub it.

The fish in the cage were frightened, and the eyes of the dead fish became more and more abstract.

The women wanted to help Zhang Tian and Xiao, they immediately got up and walked back to the cave.

Grandma finally breathed a sigh of relief. This big cage of fish, together with winter bamboo shoots and prey, is not only enough to have a full meal tonight, but also to save some rations for tomorrow morning, so the difficult decision is unnecessary.

Xiao bragged to the people about fishing with Tian. Seeing that the people didn't know what fishing was, he copied Zhang Tian's words and said with great air: "Fishing is to throw the hook into the water and wait for the fish to bite!"

"What's a hook?"

"The hook is..."

Xiao Xiao remembered that he didn't bring back the fishing rod, and was speechless for a moment, not knowing how to describe it.

It suddenly occurred to Zhang Tian that he was carrying a few with him, and he shouted, "God, do you still have a fishhook? Give me one!"

The tribe seldom eats fish, and they don't even know how to remove the scales from the fish. Seeing that the tiger's head smashed the fish's head with a stick and skewered it with a bamboo stick, they wanted to roast it on the bonfire. Zhang Tian hurriedly stopped him.

He descales the fish with a bone knife, then cuts the fish open to remove the blood, guts and bones.

The blood is collected in water bags and distributed to everyone for dinner. It contains essential vitamins, minerals, and more importantly, salt!
There is almost no need to dig out the internal organs. The internal organs of mammals need to be cleaned separately, especially the intestines. Primitive people can ignore the taste, but it does not mean that they will accept the nine-turn large intestine.

Hearing Xiao's shout, Zhang Tian took out a fishhook from the folds of his clothes and threw it to him.

"That's it! If the fish bites on this, it won't be able to escape!"

Xiao Xiao began to show off happily again.

Grandma took the bone fishhook from Xiao Xiao, and couldn't believe that such a simple thing could catch a fish that men couldn't reach with spears.

She took a closer look and found that this so-called fishhook was polished very meticulously, especially the tip, which was sharper than a bone needle. Miraculously, there was an upside-down needle inside the tip. She couldn't figure out how to grind it. from.

"What did you do?" she asked Xiao Xiao.

Xiao Xiao shook his head: "God made it! He also taught me fishing!"

Grandma looked up and found Zhang Tian among the men, and found that he was teaching the men how to handle fish. She was even more surprised: a nine-year-old child, who has never learned how to grind bone needles or participated in hunting, how can he know so much at once? up?

(End of this chapter)