It was still snowing heavily outside the cave, and a thick layer of ice had already formed by the river. Few people in the tribe went out. If you stood outside and looked around, all you could see was white.
There was a fire in the cave, and the atmosphere was different from before.
After the ice was installed, the cave was much brighter, and there was no need to feel the cold wind. This feeling was very novel to the children in the cave, and they were in a state of unusual excitement for two days. They sat around the fire, looked at the words on the stone wall, and discussed with each other.
Shao Xuan wrote the words on the animal skin scroll left by the old hunter on the stone wall. During the day, there was light coming in, so he could see the words on the stone wall clearly even without the help of a fire. After learning these, the old hunter would not have to teach from the beginning every time he came.
Unlike the others, Shao Xuan stayed in the stone room for two days, except for when he was eating, and carefully wiped off the stone powder on the stone wall.
Shao Xuan had moved the sundries in the stone room to another place, and the paintings on the stone wall took up a large area.
When he finally finished cleaning the last corner, Shao Xuan stood up, took a deep breath, and stretched his sore limbs. He took a few steps back, and looked at the paintings on the stone wall with the help of the light coming in.
The light was not very bright, and some of the paintings were not very clear. Shao Xuan still had to use the torch to see clearly.
In addition to the paintings in the two places that Shao Xuan saw at the beginning, there were other paintings that surprised Shao Xuan even more.
The paintings on the wall also involved farming and animal husbandry. There were people working in the fields, people driving the sheep with whips …
There were people wearing fur coats and holding small and fancy wine glasses, people standing on boats and casting nets to catch fish, and groups of women picking vegetables with baskets in their hands …
There were even some people riding horses. There was also a painting of an adult running with a child on a horse.
Next to it was a painting of a battle or a hunt. This painting was longer than the others, and took up almost half of the left wall. In front of the painting, there was a tall horse, and on the horse was a warrior with a long feather ornament on his head. He was obviously stronger than the others, and his head was held high. He looked very imposing, and should be the leader of these people.
Behind the strong warrior, there were several horses galloping behind him. There were also some … wolves?
No, that's not a wolf.
Compared with Caesar, the animals in the painting had long and curled tails. A few of them even had their tails curled upward. Is it a hunting dog?
Some of the hounds opened their mouths and stuck out their tongues as if they were panting. Two of them tilted their heads to the side as if they were listening to someone.
There were also some buildings in the background of these paintings. These buildings were taller and bigger than the ones Shao Xuan had seen in the tribe. Although he had heard that the houses in the mountainous area were much better than those at the foot of the mountain, Shao Xuan simulated it in his mind based on the information he had heard. Even the houses in the mountainous area were not as big as these mansions in the paintings.
His sight returned to the painting he saw at the very beginning. The woman in the painting was wearing an accessory on her head, but it was not as simple and crude as the accessories worn by women in the tribe today. Instead, it was more delicate and exquisite. As for the jar she was holding …
If those jars were not stone jars, Shao Xuan thought of a possibility — pottery.
How long had these paintings existed?
If it was about the same age as this stone room, it should have been hundreds or thousands of years.
Thousands of years ago, there had been animal husbandry, breeding and other agriculture, fishing and pottery. There were also many different kinds of hunting tools. There were even hunting dogs, which were real hunting dogs, unlike Caesar, who was accidentally brought back to be raised as a poor wolf!
Shao Xuan suppressed the shock in his heart and continued to look.
The paintings on the left stone wall were obviously different from the ones on the right. In the middle, where the left and right were separated, Shao Xuan could not understand what the paintings were. They were too abstract and looked a little messy at first glance. Shao Xuan also could not make a guess based on the paintings before and after. However, it was obvious that after this painting, the style of the paintings seemed to have suddenly fallen from the vigorous and confident state to a state of depression. Many of the paintings revealed a sense of bleakness and desolation.
There were women kneeling and crying, children standing on the ground staring blankly at something, as if they were infinitely confused. The background of the paintings was not those big houses, but the cave where Shao Xuan was now.
There were no more agricultural and livestock raising, no more women carrying baskets to gather food, no more riding and shooting, no more hunting dogs, no more pottery that was much more exquisite than stone tools …
No matter if it was the left or the right stone wall, there was a symbol above the paintings — the tribe's totem.
The Yanjiao tribe's totem looked like the horns of a double-horned rhinoceros, but the horns were longer and carried flames, just like the tribe's name.
Then, what was carved on the wall was the Yanjiao tribe?
Shao Xuan recalled that archeology classmate from his previous life had said that murals and rock paintings were usually used to depict the lives of the people of that era, or the things that people of that era imagined or hoped for. It was also a kind of spiritual sustenance for the people of that era.
The paintings carved on the walls of this stone room were definitely not something that people imagined out of thin air. The emotions in the paintings were too strong. Only real experiences and things could arouse people's deeper, more intense, and more profound emotions.
What did the tribe encounter?
Natural disaster?
Man-made disaster?
Or was it a combination of both?
At the end of the right stone wall, there were many palm-sized paintings. These paintings had different styles, such as the one at the top left, which looked like a spider resting on a web, and the one at the top right, which looked like a bamboo or some other plant. There was even one that looked like a mask, which looked very scary …
There were plants, animals, and all kinds of things that Shao Xuan could not imagine.
While Shao Xuan was studying the murals, someone called him from outside.
"Xuan, Uncle Ge is here! Xuan, come here! "
The other kids in the orphan cave were not interested in the deeper parts of the cave. During the years they lived in the orphan cave, they only went to the designated places to pee and poop, and did not go deeper. They lost interest after seeing those places once. Therefore, the kid who called Shao Xuan did not walk towards him, but shouted directly.
Coming back to his senses, Shao Xuan realized that today was indeed the day when Ge would deliver food.
This time, Ge also delivered three days' worth of food in one go. When Shao Xuan saw him, there was still a lot of snow on Ge's fur coat that had not melted, but Ge did not care at all. His eyes were fixed on the air vents filled with ice, and he was still fiddling with the stone plates in his hands. Obviously, he did not expect that there would be such things in the orphan cave. Since he was responsible for delivering food, the orphan cave had always been dark in winter. He had heard that there were similar things in the orphan cave before, but he had never seen the kids use them. Plus, the orphan cave was in bad condition before, so he did not ask too much. He did not expect that he would be able to see them today.
He asked the other kids in the orphan cave to help "unload" the food. Now that there was enough food, the kids in the orphan cave did not fight for it like before. After hearing Shao Xuan's words, they all went to help. Then Shao Xuan distributed the food according to groups. As for how to distribute the food, he did not need to worry about it.
Today, Shao Xuan did not let Ge leave immediately. Instead, he asked Ge to tell the kids about the tribe. After all, Ge had nothing else to do after delivering the food.
Shao Xuan just wanted to get more information from Ge, to see if he could connect it with the paintings on the stone wall. Unfortunately, what Ge said was similar to what Shao Xuan heard from the Lang Ga and the others. There was nothing he wanted to know.
Ge drew a pattern on the ground with a charred twig. Shao Xuan knew that Ge glanced at him several times. Obviously, Ge had seen what he was drawing, but he did not show any abnormality. Apparently, Ge did not recognize this pattern.
What Shao Xuan drew was one of the patterns with different styles on the right wall of the stone room. Ge could be considered as a senior warrior in the tribe, but he did not recognize this pattern. Shao Xuan sighed in his heart. It seemed that it would be difficult for him to know more about the paintings on the stone wall.
Actually, at the end of the painting on the right side of the stone room, there was a sentence below the pictures of different styles. However, Shao Xuan didn't recognise some of the words and couldn't connect the rest of the sentence.
Although Shao Xuan could speak the language here fluently, he was still unfamiliar with many words. Shao Xuan calculated the time when the old hunter would come again, so he learned the few words. He would ask when he had the chance.
After another ten days, the old hunter finally came down from the mountain and came to the cave again.
He was surprised to see the changes in the cave. After checking, he found that the kids in the cave had indeed learned a lot. The old hunter was very happy. He took out another animal skin roll and taught them something new.
During his free time, Shao Xuan asked him about some words. These words were not all from the stone wall, there were other words mixed in. Shao Xuan did this because he didn't want the old hunter to be suspicious.
However, it turned out that Shao Xuan thought too much. The old hunter was very interested in teaching and did not think too much about other things. He only thought that Shao Xuan had seen these words from someone else, so he was very interested in teaching Shao Xuan how to recognize them one by one.
After the lesson, the old hunter even praised Shao Xuan, "These few words are well written, they're very impressive! You will definitely be a brave warrior in the future! "
Shao Xuan just smiled and did not say anything. The words that were praised were written by him imitating the words on the stone wall. He didn't copy them exactly, but because he copied them, it carried some of the charm and grandeur of the original.
It seemed that the person who painted and wrote in the stone room was also a warrior, and probably very powerful.
After the old hunter left, Shao Xuan wrote the words on the stone wall from the old hunter's new animal skin roll for the kids in the cave to study. Then he went back to the stone room.
After recognizing the words, Shao Xuan finally knew what the words were.
"One day, we will return to our homeland. The glory is still here, and the fire of Yanjiao will never die. "
There was a word "praise" at the end of the sentence. It was probably the name of the owner of the stone room, the person who carved and wrote these words on the stone wall.
The last sentence was carved very deeply, even deeper than the other paintings. The last few words were especially deep, which showed how strong the feelings of the person who wrote these words were.
Although he didn't know why the murals were painted with stone powder, Shao Xuan was still very grateful to the person who painted and wrote these words. He admired them.
From the words, he could tell that the person's situation, or the whole tribe's situation, was not good. It was even desperate, but the person did not give up.
No matter how desperate the situation was, as long as they were alive, as long as the tribe was still there, it meant that there was still hope.
Shao Xuan took the carbonized branch and drew a thumbs-up behind the word "praise".
Here's another "praise" for you.
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