Traveling through the primitive world: I was a priest in the tribe

Guo Qi and Qing Jiu were silent for a while after listening to Xi Shi's analysis. "Don't worry, it's hard to become popular in a short time." Guo Qi said.

"Pay more attention in daily life. When the inner courtyard is ready for living, the children should not go out when the adults are not around. Try to avoid going out alone. It is best to go out in groups of two or three." Qing Jiu reminded everyone.

Ji Lang was quite confused. "How do we know if it has left or is just temporarily gone? What if it just went out hunting and hasn't come back yet?"

Xi Shi shook his head. "It hid its tracks and even messed up the place where it originally lived, trying to cover up its scent, but I still detected it. Such a young wolf does not have enough experience and is not as patient as the wolf king, so it is easy to make judgments."

The danger lurking in the dark and ready to bite them at any time made the atmosphere in this small tribe a little tense.

In such an atmosphere, it took only a few days to build the kang, and Ji Lang also made enough wooden racks. Some cave dwellings could even hold two or three, so Ji Lang put two more racks in the kitchen.

Standing in the yard, Ji Lang was very happy looking at these beautiful cave dwellings, but he also encountered many problems in the process.

The first was the flue. He thought about it for a long time but didn't know how to deal with it. It was Qing Jiu who suggested building the kang against the wall at the door and making a hole from the outside to heat the kang. The flue was built on the right side of the door. A hollow passage was built with bricks in the house, and a hole was dug at the top facing the outside. A one-meter-long bamboo tube was fixed in the hole. In order to prevent smoke from backflowing, Ji Lang burned the bamboo tube and bent it downward before fixing it.

Then there are the windows and doors. Glass will not burn, and there is no window paper, so later I simply used moisture-proof mats. First, I used bamboo to prop up the moisture-proof mat into a square of about one square meter, and fixed two bamboo poles crosswise in the middle. Then I used gum sap to fix the bamboo and moisture-proof mat together. After the glue dried, I used nails to fix this simple window to the window groove dug in the wall, and then put a circle of gum sap around it, which can not only fix it but also prevent wind from leaking. But there is a problem. The lighting in the cave is not good. It is very dark when you go in during the day. If you want it to be brighter, you can only open the door.

For the door of the cave and the gate to the outer courtyard, Ji Lang first used sawn wood and nails to fix a door frame, and then installed it on the door frame. This was really a laborious task. After all, the gate must be sturdy. The wood that Ji Lang used was also very thick. He spent several days assembling and disassembling it, and finally came up with a result that he was quite satisfied with.

The third problem was the toilet. If the toilet was built in the inner courtyard, they were worried that it would be smelly when it was hot. If it was built in the outer courtyard, it would be very inconvenient to use the toilet. Later, several people opened a passage directly on the east side and dug a small cave on the wall of the passage to use as a toilet. A solid wooden door was installed outside the passage, which was not opened at ordinary times and was only opened when the toilet was cleaned and the feces was taken to the fields.

The structure of each cave dwelling is roughly the same, with a door that is one meter wide and two meters high. Because of the threshold, several tall people have to lower their heads to enter the house.

There is a kang on the right hand side when you enter the door, and the flue is between the door and the window. On the left hand side is a fixed ceramic stove with a pot that Jilang washed himself on it. The stove was specially made by Jilang and Li. It can be used to keep warm during the day in the cold season. You can usually boil some hot water in the house, which is more convenient than in the kitchen. The flue is also on the wall, going around the door, and finally connected to the flue of the kang, sharing a smoke outlet.

Although the overall lighting is not good enough, Ji Lang is very satisfied with it, not to mention others.

When they were in the tribe, more than a dozen of them lived in one cave. Not to mention a kang, even in the cold season they could only collect some hay to use as a cushion for warmth. More than a dozen people could only make one fire. If they were too close, it would be uncomfortable to be roasted, and if they were too far away, it would be too cold to bear.

Li braided the dried Artemisia annua into pigtails. After lighting them, a lot of smoke was produced. Li took the pigtails and carefully smoked every cave with the smoke, leaving no corner untouched.

Ji Lang was quite curious and asked Qing Jiu. "What is this for?"

"This is a ritual. Every new cave must be done like this. The smell of Artemisia annua can repel insects and snakes. After the fumigation, no snakes will come." Qing Jiu explained to him.

Repelling snakes? This is really necessary, Ji Lang agreed. In just a few months, he has seen more snakes than the number of snakes he saw in reality, on TV, and in books in the past 20 years combined.

They are really everywhere. At first, he felt a little embarrassed to poop in front of Qingjiu, but he was more afraid of being bitten on the butt by the snake, especially on the migration route. Every time he pooped or cried, he had to call Qingjiu to help him drive away the snakes.

Ji Lang couldn't accept it at first, but later he gradually got used to it. Fortunately, after he moved to the outer courtyard, there were no extra weeds to block his view, so he never saw it again.

When I was a child, I was really afraid of this thing. Now that I grow up, I am no longer afraid of it, but I still feel creepy when I see it.

Li carefully fumigated every cave, piled several bundles of Artemisia annua in the middle of the yard, and called others over.

Ji Lang watched in confusion as each of them cut off a lock of hair from their heads and threw it into the lit wormwood fire.

Even the younger ones had their hair cut by Li using scissors.

He asked Qing Jiu quietly, "What does this mean?"

Qing Jiu also cut a strand of hair for him and put it into the burning fire. "This is a ritual for living in a new cave. Everyone's hair has their own scent. Burning the hair in the fire is to tell the mountain god that we are going to live here. This is the scent of each of us. I hope the mountain god will bless us."

The fire burned more and more vigorously. Qing Jiu pulled Ji Lang back. Burning fire in such a hot day, everyone's face was scorched by the heat, especially Guo Qi and Li who were closest to the fire. The sweat on their faces was enough to wash their faces, but the two of them still looked at the fire devoutly.

When the fire was about to go out, Li chanted two lines softly. Ji Lang didn't understand and looked at Qing Jiu in confusion.

Qing Jiu didn't understand either and shook his head. These were passed down orally from the ancestors and few people knew the specific meaning.

The fire was completely extinguished. Li called Qingjiu and Guoqi to collect the ashes without sparks, and scattered the ashes of Artemisia selengensis around the base of the wall from the inner courtyard to the outer courtyard.

Knowing that Ji Lang didn't understand, Li started to explain to him, "Artemisia selengensis has a strong smell. Even if it is burned to ashes, it can still repel insects. Some wild animals don't like the smell and will run away when they smell it."

Ji Lang understood.

No wonder they would carry back some Artemisia and other wild grasses to dry when they went out these days. Now there are many braided Artemisia braids hanging on the bamboo fence outside.

The newly built kang had been left to air for three days, but it still needed to be heated for two days to burn out the moisture inside before people could live in it. Ji Lang went to the outer yard to bring in some firewood, and followed a group of people to learn how to heat the kang.

"Like me, first push the firewood to the bottom of the kang with a fire stick. It is best to have firewood in every corner. Light the firewood that is easy to burn at the mouth of the kang and slowly push it in." Ji Lang said as he did it. After a while, the firewood at the bottom of the kang caught fire, making his face hot. "Wait until the firewood in the kang is completely burned before closing the small door at the entrance of the kang." This is actually to ensure that there is sufficient oxygen inside so that the firewood can be completely burned, but there is no need to explain this principle to them, and he can't explain it clearly.

"It seems quite fun. I'm going to burn down our cave." Sa Shi walked away with a pile of firewood.

"I want to heat the kang too." Feng shouted excitedly.

Wu and Xiaoman next to them said, "We want to burn it too."

"Then let's take turns cooking." Feng Xiao distributed the food like an adult.

Jilang: ...This is not a fun thing.

The cave dwellings had already been divided up for how to live, and everyone was very harmonious. Li and Uncle Lin were allowed to choose first.

Li chose the cave next to the kitchen so that it would be convenient for her to cook and burn the kiln.

Uncle Lin chose the cave on the east wall.

After everyone else had chosen, Ji Lang confirmed the overall distribution.

Coming in from the passage is the west. The first cave on the west is a small pottery kiln. Next to it is the kitchen. To the right of the kitchen is the cave where Li will live. Originally, Li was going to live there with the two boys, Wu and Feng, but because Sa Shi was pregnant, Li was worried and let Sa Shi live with her first.

What exactly am I worried about? Of course, I'm afraid that young people will do something stupid.

In this way, all three cave dwellings on the west side were arranged.

The first cave on the north side belongs to the couple Sashi and Xishi. Now that Sashi wants to live with Li, Xishi takes his younger brothers Feng and Wu to live in one house.

The second cave was where Ji Lang, Qing Jiu and Xiao Man lived. This house was chosen by Xiao Man because he wanted to live closer to his friends. Ji Lang and Qing Jiu would definitely indulge him in this matter.

The third cave is uninhabited. It is reserved for the children to live in when they grow up or when other people join the tribe. They can't always have just these few people. Apart from other things, when the boys grow up, they will each find a partner. They can't bring their partners back and have no place to live.

Guo Qi and Lan chose the fourth cave, where they lived with Xiao Chuan and their family of three, because this cave faced another passage. Guo Qi thought that he could be alert at any time if he lived here. Even though Ji Lang's door was very solid, it was not only humans who lacked food in the cold season. Compared with most animals, humans knew how to store food in advance and avoid long-term starvation, but those large carnivorous species did not know this at all. They all relied on instinct. When they were starving, they didn't care about anything else. As long as it was edible, they would not let it go. Ji Lang, an outsider, didn't understand these things and hadn't experienced them, but Guo Qi couldn't ignore them. Others acquiesced to his decision and understood his concerns.

Xishi, a man with keen senses, is guarding the main gate, so he, the man with the greatest strength, will be the one guarding the small gate.

Then there are the two caves on the easternmost side. The inner cave is where Uncle Lin and Ye Xuan live. Uncle Lin chose this location after careful consideration. Although his health has not gotten worse, it has not improved either. He coughs from time to time at night. Living in the tent in the outer yard, a cough can easily wake everyone up. So when he came in to choose a cave, he picked the one that is farther away from everyone. Ye is his son, so he must live with him and take care of him.

The cave next to him is empty, and Ji Lang plans to keep it so that he can raise some sheep, chickens, etc. in the future. However, this matter is still under consideration. Ji Lang is not very willing to raise animals in the inner yard. After all, there is a smell and it is noisy, especially poultry like chickens and ducks, which will poop everywhere when they are let out for a walk every day. When he was a child, the chickens raised by his grandmother were like this. They would dig and poop everywhere in the yard every day, and his grandmother would often ask him to clean up. Now Ji Lang gets a headache when he thinks about raising chickens.

It would be very uncomfortable to keep it in an outer yard. After all, there is no protection. If you really keep it outside, you don’t know what it is fed with. What if it is eaten or secretly caught? Wouldn’t it be a waste of effort?

So let's put this matter aside for now, and Ji Lang will think of a solution later.

When heating the kang these two days, we need to check if there is any smoke or fire leakage. Ji Lang checked every room carefully. Their kangs are of very high quality and there is no smoke or fire leakage. He reached out and tried each kang. The kangs that were heated last night were still warm.

After checking the last room, Ji Lang shouted to the people who were checking the chimney in the yard, "It's done. Go and bring in the straw that has been dried outside to spread on the kang."

"Got it." Several people outside responded.

After a while, each of them came in carrying a bundle of straw.

"Why do we need to lay straw? This kang is so flat, we can sleep on it directly." Ye asked curiously.

He and Uncle Lin joined this migrating group later. They had never seen the kang in Jilang's little house and thought they could live there directly. After all, this kang was flatter than all the cave dwellings Ye had seen in the Taoli tribe before.