"Oh!…"
"Gaowa, what did he sing?"
"Weng. To the west, to the west, to the west, the tombs of ancestors and giants!"
"The tomb of the ancestor giant? What is that?"
"Weng! That's, that's...ah! It's countless giants connected together! It's the one you've been looking for, the one you want to find!..."
In the boundless deep sea, there is a lonely island, surrounded by waves for hundreds of miles. The island has gray-brown volcanoes covered with white snow. There are sparse green shrubs, grasses and moss among the snow, extending from the edge of the island to the low and high places of the volcano. This place seems to be the end of the world, desolate and dead, without any tribes or people, not even sea beasts or birds.
The arrival of the two longships gave this dead island a little more life. The hoarse singing voice of the old guide, the crow, is like the sea breeze blowing from the north for thousands of years, carrying coldness, desolation and death!
"Hey Yo Naga!..."
"O Lord God! The corpses of the ancestor giants are the islands. From east to west, there is the Island of the Goddess, then the Island of the Goddess. And our current location is between the Island of the Goddess and the 'Mother Island'! Again! To the west is the ‘Grandma Island’, and further west is the ‘Giant’s Tomb’!…”
The cold wind was blowing and the setting sun was dim, but the eyes of Mickey, the knowledgeable man, suddenly brightened. He listened carefully to White Bear Gaowa's translation, his face gradually became brighter, his whole body felt hot, and even his heartbeat suddenly accelerated!
"Ah! God bless you! Zuvalo, that tomb with countless corpses overlapping is..."
"It's a brand new continent! The new continent predicted by His Majesty is in the mouth of Unanga's guide, in the not-too-distant west, behind the two big islands! Ah! The volcano of the Lord God guides us all the way! And His Majesty's Divine Enlightenment The prophecy also guides us all the way!..."
Exploration captain Zuvalo looked excited and fanatical. He looked around, looking at the blood-red sunset, the vast sea, the tiny island, and the only two longships... After a moment, he gritted his teeth and made up his mind!
"Take a rest tonight! Use snow water to replenish fresh water! Early tomorrow morning, we will row west at full speed to find the 'Mother Island' that Unanga calls it!..."
The autumn wind is biting and cold, and the sea tide rises and falls. The sun was sunny and cloudy, and clouds were looming in the north. Under the guidance of the old guide Wu Baiya, everyone in the fleet rowed toward the northwest for two days. Finally, in the evening of the next day, everyone saw a small island from a distance.
"This is 'Mother's Child', one of the two small islands east of Mother Island. There are no tribes on the two small islands, but there are sea lions and seals that can hunt! However, the scale of sea beasts is not large, so don't Hunting the female beast! This is the tribe's tradition..."
When we arrived here, the old face of the old guide Wu Baiya gradually changed from a dead and extinct volcano to a lively and active volcano. He babbled, sang many songs, and told many stories, murmurings that even White Bear Gaowa could not understand. At noon on the third day, the two long ships finally crossed hundreds of miles of sea, passed two anchored islands, and arrived at the snow-capped "Mother Island"!
"Hey Yo Naga! My mother! I'm back! After the spring of five palms, before the death of nine palms!..."
The old guide Wu Baiya landed on the island and looked at the desolate white and the green that had not withered yet. Tears gradually filled his cloudy old eyes. He lay on the ground tremblingly, pressing his head against the gray-brown cold soil, letting his tears mix with the mud, flowing into the place where he was born, and into the land where his parents and clan members were buried.
"Hey Naga! I'm back! The bones of my father and mother are buried outside the tribe's cave. I also want to bury mine there! ...What a pity! The bodies of my brother and brother are buried. No more can be found in the rolling sea!…”
"Lord God! Gao Wa, the old white crow is crying, laughing, barking and howling...what are you talking about?"
"Weng! Bai Yao said that he... left here at the age of twenty, on the island where he was born. Together with his elder brother and younger brother, according to the tribal tradition, he rowed to the Changnu Island in the east... In the end, he was the only one who arrived and joined He joined the tribe there and gave birth to a new child... He originally thought that he would die on Changnu Island, but he never thought that there would be a day when he would come back!..."
Hearing this, the knowledgeable man lowered his eyes, his mind fluctuated violently, and he didn't speak for a long time. He knew that the Unanga people would paddle simple kayaks and canoes and venture into the sea to fish and hunt. But he couldn't imagine how difficult it would be to row such a simple boat across hundreds of miles of ocean and travel between islands!
For the Unanga people, this thousands-mile ancestral island chain is their harsh and cold homeland where they have struggled to survive for generations. When the ancestral giants died, they turned into islands. Every time you sail across the island, you are accompanied by the dead ancestors, looking for tribes on other islands, so that new bloodlines can merge with each other! Only with this kind of cross-island intermarriage can the small Unanga people continue to live healthily, from the beginning thousands of years ago to today! …
"The Lord God bless you! Please lead us to visit the tribe he came from! We want to know more information about the West, whether it is the Giant Island or the Tomb Continent!..."
The area of Mother Island is only about 150 miles long and 780 miles wide. There are no towering volcanoes on this island, and there are no warm, non-freezing hot springs. White low mountains covered with snow can be seen everywhere. Mickey, the knowledgeable man, named this island "Snow Girl Island".
The climate of Shenxuenu Island is even colder, and the Unanga tribe on the island is obviously smaller than that of other large islands. It is estimated that there are only more than 400 people in total. In order to keep warm, most of the tribes here chose to dig caves and live in semi-underground caves in the mountains. They maintain a relatively primitive living condition. The only sources of food are fishing and hunting. Their activity range is only between the two surrounding islands, and they rarely come into contact with other ethnic groups. They have no hostility or fighting, no concept of enemies. In fact, their biggest and always enemy is the harsh and cold climate environment. In their understanding, the ships coming over the sea represent new tribes and people joining!
Therefore, when they saw the two "giant" longships arriving and the sudden appearance of the "longship tribe", the Unanga people on the island were very surprised and envious, showing obvious goodwill!
The fleet stayed on Shenxuenu Island for three days and visited two larger tribes. The old guide Wu Baiya found his tribe of origin, but unfortunately all his relatives have been buried in the earth and sea. In this tribe of nearly a hundred people, no one has lived past the age of forty...
Wu Baiya's sister died in the cold winter ten years ago. And his nephew died while going fishing three years ago. On this string of desolate islands, the life of the tribesmen is so short. Forty-five-year-old "old people" like Wu Baiya are almost rare!
"Hey, Naga! My mother! I'm back! The bones of my father, my mother, my sister and my son are all buried outside the tribe's cave... Hey, Naga! I want mine too Bones, buried there, buried with them!”
On the gray hills, there is the cold wind of approaching winter. Knowledgeable Mickey and Exploration Captain Zuvalo stood side by side, listening to the singing of the crow again. There was not much sadness in the hoarse song, only the vicissitudes of wind and snow, just like his white hair, scattered and flying in the cold wind of the Far North, frozen and frosted.
Mickey the Knowledgeable listened patiently for a long time before speaking in a low voice.
"Witness the Lord God! Zuvalo, we have asked several tribes on the island... No one has been to the 'Grandmother Island' in the northwest, and the last time someone came from there was two generations ago! It is too far away. It’s so cold that it only exists in the oral songs of the Unanga tribe… It would be difficult for the longship to find it!…”
Hearing this, exploration captain Zuvalo pursed his lips, looked solemnly, and said in a deep voice.
"Gaowa, ask Bai Yao. What do the local tribes sing about Grandmother Island?"
After hearing the question relayed by White Bear Gaowa, the old guide Wu Baiya raised his head and took a deep look at Zuwaro. Then, he took a deep breath and sang hoarsely.
"Hey, Naga! The ancient sleeping grandmother, guarding the even more ancient sleeping tomb. The white cold low mountain, facing the white high mountain of death! Children returning home, rowing the boat of their ancestors, It took them seven days and nights to see their grandmother's face! And the storm on the sea would blow them away, missing their grandmother's arms, and sinking into the endless sea...or they would drift into the tombs of their ancestors and go away. Never come back!…”
(End of chapter)
