"The ancestors have witnessed that the Lord God is watching us! I, Chihuaco, swear that the fleet will soon release the captives and leave the ancestral land of the Sri people. The tribes in the lake and the Konkakesli tribe are friends, not enemy!"
"The flames of the ancestors bear witness to the oath! I, Lobster Pikam, swear that as long as the captain of the big ship lets me return to the tribe and leaves our ancestral land, he will be my friend! I will lay down my weapons and sing and share with him the ancestors' Northern Song.”
The two of them cut their palms, and blood immediately flowed. Then, with solemn expressions, they first swore in different languages, and then stretched out their right palms at the same time, touching each other closely, letting the red blood fuse!
"The ancestors witnessed it! The blood oath will never change!"
After all the shouts, the blood-stained oath was completed. In this era, the oaths made by ancestors and blood always have a sacred effect in people's hearts. It is a promise that all tribes in the Americas respect and stick to!
After taking the oath, Pikam's face softened a lot, and even smiled. Chihuaco grinned, his face throbbing with pain. The two of them applied some yucca juice and bandaged the wound. Then they lowered their heads and touched each other's foreheads, like a bobcat and a wild deer meeting for the first time.
"Friend! Let me go, I won't do it again!"
"okay!"
Chihuaco hesitated for a moment, then carefully reached out and untied the rope that tied Pikam. Pikam moved his thick wrist, glared at the ferocious Puap, and then looked deeply at the old militiaman. Then, he sat cross-legged directly on the deck.
"Friend, I am thirsty and hungry. Is there anything to drink or eat?"
"...have."
Chihuaco raised his brows and gave a few instructions in a low voice. Soon, sailors brought dry and hard corn tortillas, black bean puree mixed with water, and some light fruit wine that would not spoil easily. There is no shortage of fruits in Central America, and fruit wine is the drink commonly consumed by civilians and warriors.
"Gudongdong!"
Pikamur even drank a few sips of fruit wine, surprise and satisfaction appeared on his face. Then, he gnawed on the pancakes and scooped out the mashed beans, like a bear chewing corn.
"Mmm... delicious! Mmm... delicious!"
"..."
The corners of Chihuaco's eyes twitched as he watched Pikam devour the food. The other party is the leader of a tribe, but he seems to have never eaten anything. He is not even as good as the warriors of the kingdom.
"It seems that although the Sri people are as aggressive as coyotes, food is relatively scarce."
After a while, Pikam finished drinking the wine and finishing the cake. He licked his fingers, looking a little unsatisfied.
"Friends, the food you Lake Tribe eats is very good!"
Chihuaco smiled and nodded.
"Okay, okay! Friend, are you full?"
"Me? Of course, I haven't eaten enough! But that's fine. If you eat too much, you won't be able to run."
Pikam shook his head. As a desert tribe, food is always the biggest problem. They are generally lean and lean, do not have a lot of fat on their bodies, and rarely have the opportunity to eat and drink.
"...Well, that's good. There are plenty of pancakes on the boat. You can take a bag back when you leave."
"Ah! Really?"
"Yeah. Really!"
Chihuaco blinked, watching Pikam's face show surprise. The old militiaman smiled warmly, patted the other person's shoulder cordially, and then got down to business.
"Lobster, how many soldiers from your various Sri Lankan ministries have come this time?"
"Warriors? Our warriors are like the stars in the sky, too numerous to count! This vast sea of sand, all the way to the far north, is filled with our tribes. In order to defend the sacred ancestral land, all tribes put aside their Let’s get over the conflict and gather together! And more tribal warriors are still on the road behind!”
Pickham straightened his spine and rambled nonsense.
Sri's various departments are indeed spread over a wide range, but most of them are located in arid deserts, where there is a very lack of food and it is difficult to march long distances. Only nearby tribes within one or two hundred miles can mobilize warriors to protect their ancestral lands. However, they cannot leave fishing and hunting behind and stay here for too long. Other tribes will only send a few warriors who are good at fighting at most. So reinforcements and the like are said to be present, but in fact they are almost non-existent.
"Uh...okay."
Chihuaco blinked. He looked at Pikam's expression and knew that the other party was still on guard, so he stopped asking for information about the Sri soldiers. He thought for a while and changed the topic.
"Lobster, why is that Tasha Island your ancestral land?"
After hearing Shantiao's translation, Pikam sat up straight and answered seriously.
"Friends, Tahoek Island is the common ancestral land of all tribes in Konkakesli. All tribes, whether they are on the east side of the big island, the north side of the big island, or the peninsula on the west side of the big island, will have songs passed down by their ancestors."
"The west side of the big island, the peninsula?"
Hearing this, Chihuaco took note in his heart.
"What, there are songs?"
"Yes. We are a tribe that is good at singing, and we use songs to pass down epics."
Pikam raised his head, looked at the vast night, stared at the boundless sea, and sang in a low voice.
"...It's this time, when night falls. Spirit whales live around the ancestral land, they float and sink on the sea, they live in seclusion in caves...O tribesmen who are good at running! When you visit the ancestors at midnight If you go to the ground, you will see huge spirit whales gliding on the waves. This is an auspicious sign and is the guardian of the tribe!...Look directly at them, and they will leave the water, rise into the sky, and fly towards you! He They will envelope you with their powerful spirit and grant you sacred blessings... This is the contract between the ancestors and the spirit whales, in this blessed ancestral land! From now on, you will be free from the terrible invasion of evil and gain powerful Healing ability, the ability to walk safely in the lightless night...Tahyok is the sacred place, the island of the spirit whale!..."
"Tahyok, sacred place, island of spirit whales..."
Chihuaco stared at the sea and could vaguely see the rising and falling whales. He bowed his head slightly to pay respect to the myth and legend. Later, the old militiamen were in trouble. He scratched his head and asked in a deep voice.
"Friends, the chief of the tribe in the lake, let us go out to sea to find an island where birds live! This big island is inhabited by birds, but it is your sacred ancestral land. So, are there other islands nearby?"
"Oh! It turns out that you are the team looking for the sacred island."
Pikam touched his head and looked at the warriors on the ship warily. He thought for a moment and pointed his hand towards the west.
"Friends, we are in a long and narrow bay, surrounded by a large group of whales and inhabited by countless seabirds. To the west and north of Tahyok, after a day or two of boating, there is another large island with many birds. In the southwest, there are several small islands with many birds. Then, if you follow the narrow peninsula in the west and turn south, from the central part where the Kochimi people live to the small tribe in the south, there are There are so many small islands!”
"We are in a long and narrow bay? Is there a long and narrow peninsula to the west? Is the end of the sea in the northwest?"
Chihuaco was a little surprised. He always thought that he was still traveling on the vast sea.
"Yes. We are in a bay, and to the west is a peninsula extending from north to south. Because there are spiritual whales protecting us, the sea is calm. The tribe can fish in the sea in reed boats without worrying about waves."
Pikam nodded affirmatively. He is the chief of the tribe, has an epic heritage, and knows the situation around him. He turned and pointed to the sea to the north.
"Since it is a bay, it naturally has an end. If you paddle a small boat from here for about ten days, you will reach the end of the bay, the border of the northern desert. That is the direction from which the ancestors migrated. The north, west, and east sides of the bay, They are all tribes of our Konkakesli people! The mighty north wind, coming from the vast continent and mountains in the north, is haaha, or haitáapa!"
"'Haha'? 'Hata Appa'?"
Chihuaco's eyes widened and he repeated this strange word, as if he felt a mysterious power.
"Yeah! 'Haha'!"
Pikam recited loudly, his face full of piety and yearning.
"'Haha' is the north wind, the real wind. 'Hata Apa' is the truth of all things, and it is also the place where the tribe originated! In order to avoid the terrible flood, the ancestors were forced to leave the warm and comfortable fertile land. They went through hardships, They traveled long distances, singing traditional songs and shaking stone bells. They traveled south along the coast for thousands of miles, and finally were protected by the spirit whales and settled in the desert and the bay! And the tower Heyok is the ancestral land where our ancestors met the spirit whale!"
At the end of the day, Pickham emphasized again. His eyes were still looking towards the north, murmuring longingly.
"Perhaps, in my lifetime, I can travel thousands of miles to the place where my ancestors originated. Take a look at what the fertile land legendary in the ballads looks like!"
In Sri language, the three directions "east, west and south" are common words. Only "the north, the north wind" symbolizes the origin of the sublime. The flood-fertile soil where the Sri people originated may be in the San Francisco Bay area of California.
"ah?"
Chihuaco was stunned when he heard this. He smacked his lips in surprise and asked in disbelief.
"Lobster, you just said that there is boundless land in the north at the end of the sea?"
"Of course! According to the songs of our ancestors, the land in the north is endless, with rivers full of vitality, and tribes as numerous as forests. The bay where our ancestors lived is warm all year round, with plenty of food, and there are rolling mountains in the east, which are never affected by cold waves. The threat. But there will be terrible floods..."
Pikam sighed. In the songs of our ancestors, it was also said that if you plant crops in the fields, you can reap many times the harvest. But in this arid and desolate land, there is almost no fertile soil for cultivation. The tribe has long lost the technology of planting, unless...
Chief Lobster looked deeply at the south and pursed his lips. Then, he seemed to remember something and added.
"Friend, you just said it wrong. The north is not the end of the sea, but the end of the bay. To the west of the narrow peninsula, there is still the endless sea. Our ancestors went south along the coast. Therefore, our language, It’s different from other ministries around it.”
"Well, that's it."
Chihuaco nodded slightly. He touched his wrinkled old face and said nothing. According to Chief Lobster's description, the Seabird Islands are along the peninsula in the west, heading south, which is the direction home. To go north, it takes ten days for a small boat and less than ten days for a big ship to reach the end of the northwest bay, the boundless northern continental border..." Next, the fleet returned south to take a look at the sea of birds. Small and medium-sized islands, or should we continue to the north and take a look at the endless northern continent?"
The old militiaman frowned and thought deeply. After a moment, he looked at Puap's expression, lowered his eyes, and finally made a decision!
