I was so frightened just now that I ran away without knowing where I threw Nai Li. Anyway, she must have lost it.
I said to look for it quickly, it didn't take me very far, it should be nearby.
I started looking with a flashlight and finally found it in the grass nest.
Mr. Song apologized to Nai Li repeatedly and scolded me for not being careful. He also said that we would be in bad luck in the next few days.
After climbing over Langpo and arriving at Tulingou, I saw a large pile of dry firewood piled in an open space, which had obviously been prepared during the day. There was also something made of wood placed next to the pile of firewood.
The triangular shape looked like a small house in ancient times, or the sedan chair with a triangular roof in the past. It was engraved with such-and-such year, such-and-such month, and used by so-and-so. I didn't dare to ask any more questions.
The mountains are very quiet, and from time to time you can hear the calls of strange birds.
Two people carried Nai Li to the firewood pile, and Mr. Song kowtowed three times respectfully.
He said before that our cremation is different from the cremation in the crematorium brought by the Cultural Affairs Bureau. Yes, it is completely different.
I have never seen this form of cremation.
After Mr. Song kowtowed, he lit three incense sticks, and when he got up, he took off all the clothes on Nai Li.
Not only the shroud, but all the clothes inside and outside were taken off.
Then, he called his junior brother to help with the household registration check. The two of them used force to bend Nai Li's body into the position of a fetus in the mother's belly, with her whole body curled up.
Due to the stiffness of the joints in the dead man's body, this step alone took the two of them more than half an hour. I was extremely uncomfortable watching it. I can imagine the scene. The old man who had been dead for a long time was being folded with great force. Sometimes the force was too strong, and even
The cracking sounds of bones and joints can be heard.
Mr. Song wiped his sweat and took out a large handful of ropes from the cloth bag he carried with him. Each rope was more than half a meter long, and there were more than a dozen ropes.
He used a rope to tie knots on Nai Li's wrists, joints and other parts. I roughly counted, and there were a total of 13 knots tied before and after.
Without hesitation, after doing this, he took out his lighter and lit the hay directly.
The fire increased, igniting the wood again, and within a few minutes it was already a sea of flames.
The dry firewood crackled and burned, and the heat wave hit our faces a little painfully. The three of us took a few steps back.
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Come clean, leave clean. Let's go."
I looked at the raging fire and asked why it was burning like this.
Mr. Song explained: "This is a burial method of the Tujia people. They believe that people should "come in" and "go out". The purpose of tying knots is to keep the body in the posture and burn it completely.
, so that the soul will be as pure as a newborn baby and will not have any nostalgia for the human world.
The Tujia people do have this kind of burial method, which local folklorists call "returning the earth burial". Similar ones include the "returning the tiger burial" of the Yi people and the "squatting burial" of the Mosuo people. The returning tiger burial is when burning the corpse.
Putting a robe embroidered with a tiger on a person, and squatting to bury the person, as the name suggests, means squatting on the firewood to burn the person.
After adding more firewood two or three times, the smoke billowed and the fire shot into the sky. It took more than an hour to burn, and Li Nai was burned to ashes.
He used a wooden stick to pick out the agglomerated ashes and let them dry for a few minutes. Mr. Song put the ashes into a small wooden sedan and covered it with a red cloth. He explained that this is called a coffin. Many people don't know that it is used for dead people.
This is better than using an urn.
When the fire went out, Mr. Song held the wooden sedan in both hands and said, "It's okay. Thank you for your hard work."
"What will the Cultural Affairs Bureau say when it comes tomorrow?" I asked him.
He said: "Our people are burned, what else can they do? The worst result is to pay a fine and be criticized."
"By the way, young man, you rest at home in the morning and come to see me in the afternoon after lunch. We need to get rid of the bad luck, otherwise we may have bad luck in the near future."
"Okay, then I'll go see you tomorrow afternoon."
"After all this work, I will be leaving the day after tomorrow."
"Where to go?"
"Of course I'm going back. I'm not from Tianjing Village. I live in Huacun. If you need to do anything in the future, you can come to me."
I said that's not necessary, I'll try not to look for you. After hearing this, he shook his head and smiled.
Actually, what is the name of what we did tonight?
