Even though its geographical location is too far north, right on the edge of the Arctic Circle, Roseburg faces the Baltic Sea after all. The climate here does not become extreme due to the dimension, so the short summer still allows some very cold-resistant chrysanthemum varieties and dandelions to survive.
For couples who get married during the warm period in the tribe, the bride must wear a beautiful garland according to tradition. Chrysanthemums and sage are all good decorations. Unfortunately, as one of the few Verias who mastered the production of medicines, she inherited her predecessors and believed that sage was a medicinal material. As for chrysanthemum, her predecessors did not mention it, and she did not use it as medicine for decades.
Vilia was doubtful of Rurik's words. She didn't ask why, she asked "Odin's wisdom".
Anyway, Rurik is very determined.
"Rurik, are you sure about your decision? Are those two flowers medicinal materials?"
"They are medicinal materials, I'm sure." Rurik said firmly.
"Okay. First we need to cure Rumia, and when summer comes, we will go collect it."
"Okay!" Rurik smiled, and at the same time he had a bold idea in his heart.
There is no doubt that chrysanthemum tea has the effect of treating colds.
Dandelion may be regarded as a child's toy, it is a medicinal material and it can also be used as a vegetable. The most lacking thing in Roseburg is edible vegetables.
The diet of ordinary residents is full of all kinds of meat, and there are almost no so-called vegetables.
Even close to the seaside, there are seaweeds such as kelp distributed in some sea areas. They won't eat these things and treat floating seaweed as garbage because their bodies lack the corresponding genes to digest seaweed.
The area here is still too remote. No one grows vegetables on a large scale, and there is not enough consumer market. What's worse, everyone must not realize the importance of eating vegetables.
People who lack vitamins will also get sick, but everyone's physical condition is normal.
For a moment, Rurik suddenly realized that the Ross tribe did not need to deliberately eat vegetables. Those dried fish, seal livers, and the livers of many animals had a strange smell and taste. At least they were food, and they still had to be eaten if they tasted strange.
In this way, there is no shortage of vitamins needed by the human body.
Chrysanthemum tea is made by soaking chrysanthemums in water. The fresh and slightly bitter taste is better than ordinary water.
For several years, Rurik had disliked the habit of residents drinking raw water. There is a small river not far from Roseburg. Residents carry wooden barrels to collect water from the river directly, and basically drink it directly. In winter, the way of river water is more rough. You can drink the melted snow water directly.
They only drink water that has been boiled once when cooking meat or soup, and most of the time they drink raw water.
Drinking raw water is never a good habit, that is, it is very cold here in Roseburg, and the river water comes from melted snow in the mountains. The river is frozen in winter and turbulent in summer. There are few freshwater fish in the river and even fewer parasites.
Almost no one gets upset after drinking unboiled water. I’m afraid this is a blessing brought by the geographical location.
Rurik felt very unhappy about drinking raw water. If possible, he paranoidly hoped to boil the water before drinking it.
Taking this opportunity, he felt it was necessary to explain to Villa.
"Grandma, we will collect a lot of chrysanthemums in the future, and we will boil water with chrysanthemums to drink. In this way, the warm water will still have the fragrance of flowers."
"Oh? Do you like it? Are you talking about chrysanthemums or medicinal herbs?" Vilia said curiously.
"Yes! As long as you put the chrysanthemums in the pot and boil them, the water will turn light yellow. Not only will this water taste better, but the most important thing!" Rurik looked at the sleeping Rumia, "If Rumia If you drink chrysanthemum water every day for the past ten days, she will not get sick. If you boil it with dandelion, the effect of this water will be even better."
"Okay! I believe that will be the case." Vilia reached out and rubbed Rurik's head. "You are thinking about the entire tribe, and you will be a good leader."
"Hehe, of course I am."
"Next..." Villa stood up slowly, hunched over and returned to the campfire, muttering: "I also need to cook some wheat porridge for Rumia, put some salt in the porridge, and... There are herbs. Then add chopped meat. Rumia will eat this for a while."
Just as Vilia thought, Rumia's food situation was very good in the following time.
The climate was still cold, and the sick girl was placed in the priest's cabin. Rurik would always stay with the priest during the day, staying with her to take care of her, and he continued to learn the deer herder's language vocabulary from Vilia.
He went back to his house to sleep, and when he woke up, he dressed and hurried back to the priest's cabin.
Both Otto and Niya knew that it was the deer herder girl who made their son so anxious. It seemed that the girl's condition was really getting better day by day.
In the era before powerful antibiotics, patients with fevers and colds caused by wind and cold would take a longer time to recover. Increasing nutritional supplements to the patient during the process can speed up the process.
After drinking herbal soup for two days, Rumia's condition basically improved. Her body temperature has returned to normal, but she still looks weak.
For two days, she knew that Rurik was always by her side.
She sat crouched, draped in a deerskin, facing the fire where the herbs were boiling.
Rurik was also sitting next to him, really like a biological brother who would never leave him.
There was a gurgling sound from the iron pot placed on the bonfire, and Rurik stepped forward and unloaded the pot full of medicinal soup.
"Rumia, take the medicine."
"Now, the medicine is very hot." The girl said stumblingly.
"Just leave it for a while."
Rurik said so. He poured out the medicinal soup himself and stirred it quickly, just to make it cool faster.
After a while, he came over with a bowl.
Facing his earnest gaze, Rumia's nose felt sore, and two lines of hot tears flowed down her haggard face.
"Rurik, why are you so nice to me. Am I not a servant?"
"No. We are friends, and you are my sister. Stop crying, drink the medicine, and you will eat wheat porridge later."
To be honest, even if my family is still alive, I have never had such hospitality. As a deer herder girl, Rumia felt that she was born to do a lot of work.
All men, women, and children must work or else they will freeze to death.
Now she truly realizes that a person can actually live a life of doing nothing and having food to eat. It seems that this happy life comes from the charity of the master.
Rumia was very touched, and she subconsciously wanted to repay him.
She took the wooden bowl herself, took a swig of the bitter medicinal soup, and continued: "When I get better, I will study the wooden boards in that room. I will learn your language."
"Of course." Rurik reached out and pinched her cheek. "This is the task I gave you. You must understand the writing on the wooden board. The priest told me that your illness was actually given to you by our god. The final test. You will recover soon. When you can resume your daily work, it will prove that you have passed the test. In that case, you will be our tribe. Although you will still not get many rights, any behavior that harms you will be A sin.”
Rumia was doubtful, and she murmured: "So I will become one of your tribe?"
"Yes, this way my mother will treat you as a daughter. I think her attitude towards you will be much better. And my father, he will definitely take the initiative to protect you."
Those people are the enemies who killed their father, and they are people with deep hatred. If I were officially accepted by them, would I still need to retaliate against my hatred?
Rumia didn't think much about it at all. She naturally put her hand on Rick's shoulder to show her intimacy.
With Rumia holding her shoulders and grabbing her arms, Rurik actually felt very comfortable.
A seed of repayment has been planted in her heart, and the next step is to give her some tasks or help her do something.
Is there anything I can do?
Of course!
Because when the weather got colder, Rurik witnessed the entire process of the priests boiling seal oil.
Seal, a creature with a body fat percentage of up to 60%, its extremely rich fat brings an excellent delicacy, and is also turned into lamp oil, lighting up cold nights one after another.
The seal's fat pieces are thrown directly into a special iron pot. The pot is completely covered with carbon black and its interior remains greasy.
All kinds of animal fats are thrown here to be roasted and refined, and the best material among them is undoubtedly seal.
After the sea froze, a group of brave men from the tribe became masters at fishing for seals.
The population of Baltic seals was very prosperous during this era, and large fin whales were often seen in the waters.
Whaling is a very challenging job that requires fishermen to row long boats and perform very hard work on the sea. Moreover, the so-called labor is often difficult to achieve victory. The spearheads of the thrown spears certainly penetrated the whale's skin, but the whale seemed to have no reaction. It struggled and dived quickly, causing the fishermen to lose several spears and regretfully failed.
Seal fishing is different. You only need to use an ax to dig some holes in the ice, and the rest is to wait and see. A hole often attracts more than a dozen seals to come up to breathe. They are poked by spears, and then poked by the protrusions from the lower edge of the Nordic forest ax, pulling them up like hooks.
Lamp oil is an essential daily necessities. Seal skin is very soft and is also a good material for leather clothing.
Most of the seal's fat is actually eaten by people, because the seal meat with the fat is roasted and sprinkled with salt, and the taste is really addictive.
Rurik knows the history that happened in another plane.
In the era of great industrial development, in order to combat the wear of steel parts, the traditional anti-wear agent animal fat continues to play a role.
Whale oil is a very good industrial lubricant, and seal oil is also used.
The huge demand in this area forced people to chase profits frantically, and the populations of seals and various whales quickly suffered a catastrophic blow.
Fortunately, the original intention of ordinary residents to capture such marine animals is very simple - to eat meat and skin them.
There seems to be no more requirements than that.
However, in winter, this priest's longhouse is in a sense a large oil-making workshop.
Due to the need for sacrifices, priests would light many oil lamps for a long time, and the oil consumption was much higher than that of ordinary households.
Even in the summer when there is almost no night, the oil lamp here of the priest is still bright.
"Grease is readily available now, and they throw away the ashes of charcoal at will. There is no shortage of salt in the tribe, and there are even other ore stabilizers. All the materials are available, is it difficult to make a soil soap? Not difficult. First of all. I want to wait until Rumia recovers."
That's what Rurik thought, and soon Rumia would have to fulfill the duties of a servant.
It has been five days since Lumia was rescued, and the weather outside has become cloudy and uncertain again.
She is recovering well and has gained a lot of weight.
of course!
Before being captured, Rumia was like a wolf on the ice sheet, living almost exclusively on meat and living a rough life of hungry meals.
The difficult journey after the captivity was even worse, and only at the priest's cabin did bread arrive late for the first time.
Later, the food became only a little better. As a result, due to the huge consumption in a day, the whole person collapsed several pounds, and diseases followed.
During the period of recuperation, she felt that life was like paradise. Two meals a day were made of thick, salty soup made of wheat and meat.
The wheat has been boiled into paste and served with fresh meat, which is an excellent tonic.
Rumia has gained weight, her face is very rosy, her whole body is full of strength, and she is in good spirits.
Now, both Rurik and the priest Vilia can say that she has recovered.
On the sixth day, it was time for Rumia to start working again as usual, especially since it was no longer snowing outside and it was time to drive the reindeer out and continue grazing.
That was her job. While shepherding, the priestess also helped her, which was also the purpose of surveillance.
Rurik also needs her help in making earthen soap.
But before that, he still had to inform the priests of his plan, because Rurik had to obtain a large amount of refined oil from the priests in a reasonable manner.
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Chapter 83 Rumia’s recovery
