The two sides initially determined the intention of the transaction, but the specific details of the cooperation had to be negotiated, and experts were needed to set the price.
The tribe's gold was refined by primitive methods, and so was the silver. Their purity was not uniform, and the price was difficult to determine.
The price of snake venom and snake serum was also difficult to determine. Li Du did not know these things, and animal fur, antlers, various herbs, and so on, it was even more difficult to assess their prices.
The ginseng that the chief took out was American ginseng, which Li Du was familiar with when he was in China. The ginseng was uniform, cylindrical, spindle-shaped, six or seven centimeters long and a little more than a centimeter in diameter. The surface was khaki and did not look big.
This was wild American ginseng, which could not grow larger like Chinese ginseng or Korean ginseng. This size was the limit of wild American ginseng.
The chief was a straightforward man, and so was Li Du. After they decided to cooperate, they left each other a deposit.
Li Du took out $10,000 in cash, and the chief gave him some gold, silver, snake venom, and fur to take back for identification.
Counting the green dollar bills, the chief laughed and said, "I was right. You are rich, carrying so much cash with you when you climb the mountain."
Li Du said, "We Chinese like to use cash."
He studied the American ginseng, cut a piece with a dagger, and chewed it in his mouth. The taste was somewhat contradictory. It was slightly bitter and sweet. After chewing for a while, he spat out the residue, and his mouth was full of the fresh fragrance of the plant.
The quality of the ginseng was good, and even a layman like Li Du could tell.
The Indians were quite similar to the Chinese in this respect. Their pharmacology was also based on herbs. At first, American ginseng was of little value in North America, but the Indians liked to collect them.
Because of the great harvest of the Holy Wolf, the tribe was going to hold a grand dinner again.
As long as they had enough food, they would enjoy it. The Indians had no long-term vision. It was not that they were short-sighted, but that was their attitude towards life.
These people believed that life was impermanent and that they would leave the world at any time, so they seized the time to enjoy themselves and make themselves happy. The slogan of life was: Come on, have fun.
The value of food was to sustain life. As long as there was enough food, there would be a dinner party, not for food, but for entertainment.
Later on, the other hunting groups returned. Most of them had harvested wild boars or birds, and some fish.
The fish they caught were very small. There were not many big fish in the rivers and lakes on the mountain. Li Du did not know the identity of these fish, but he guessed that since they lived in the unpolluted mountains, the quality of their meat must be good.
After the fish were brought back, someone began to carefully wash them with the clear stream water over and over again.
Seeing this, Li Du praised, "Exquisite!"
The chief who accompanied him laughed and said, "Haha, this is not for the sake of cleanliness, or it can be said that it is for the sake of cleanliness, because we use a kind of poisonous grass to fish, so we have to wash them carefully to prevent any residual venom."
After hearing this, Li Du decided not to eat this kind of fish later. Anyway, he did not really like eating fish.
Ah Ow's miraculous feats had spread throughout the tribe. As the saying went, love the house, love the crow. The natives worshipped Ah Ow and, incidentally, also worshipped Li Du.
Unlike the previous night's banquet, when Li Du strolled around the tribe, more people greeted him, and someone even served him a bowl of turbid wine.
The alcohol content of this wine was relatively low. It was a kind of beer brewed from sweet potatoes. The people in the tribe called it jikai.
Jikai was an important part of the food culture of the Tavisi tribe and the lubricant of their social activities.
The place where Li Du received the wine was the tribe's winery, where someone was making jikai.
Women worked in the winery, and the winemaking process was controlled by an elder. In fact, it was very simple to make jikai. It was made from sweet potatoes. The women peeled them with a machete, then washed the sweet potatoes in the river, put them in a pot to steam, and finally put them into a mortar to ferment.
Near evening, another hunting group came back. They brought back some eggs and a bag of things. After opening it, the children gathered around and cheered, "Oh! Munish! Munish! "
Li Du went up to take a look, and then his face changed. The things in the bag were worms, a bit like silkworms, probably insect larvae. They were white in color, wriggling together, and looked disgusting.
The chief patted him on the shoulder and said, "Great, you can taste our Tavisi food."
Li Du smiled and said, "This kind of worm?"
"This is Munish, it tastes very good, and it is not easy to find them," the chief said happily. "You will know when the time comes."
As night fell, bonfires were lit, and some young people beat gongs and drums. The lively party began.
As before, more than a thousand people appeared halfway up the hill. Because of the terrain, the meeting place was long, encircling the hillside.
The bonfires were arranged in such a way that, from a distance, it looked like a fire dragon.
With the sound of gongs and drums, the girls danced around the bonfire, and the men and women began to sing, their faces full of smiles of satisfaction.
The Markelov brothers also joined in, hugging and having a good time with the women, but Brother Wolf and Firecracker remained vigilant.
Li Du said, "It's okay, they won't do anything to us. Relax and go have fun."
Brother Wolf shook his head and said, "No, boss, I don't trust them. You go have fun."
A coarse pottery pot was hanging over a bonfire, and as the flames burned, the pot gradually heated to a red color.
At this time, someone smeared grease on it with a brush, and then quickly threw some big fat worms on it.
Almost at the same time, after the big worms were thrown up, the coarse pottery pot was taken down, and someone shook it a few times before pouring it into a plate for Li Du and the chief.
Looking at the worms on the plate that were swollen from cooking, Li Du felt that his appetite was average, and said politely, "You guys eat, I'll drink some wine first."
The chief did not stand on ceremony. He grabbed the worms with his hands and ate them. The people around him swallowed as if he was eating some delicious food.
A woman brought up the staple food, which was called Maito. The ingredients included fish, chicken, brown rice, rosemary, onions, and so on. There was a layer of mashed potatoes on the outside, which Li Du thought was good.
He took a Maito, chewed it, and felt that it was more fragrant today. He nodded to the chief and said, "It tastes great."
The chief raised his eyebrows and smiled. "It's because there is Munish in it that it tastes so good."
Li Du tore open the mashed potatoes and looked, and sure enough, there were a few roasted fat worms in it!
Some of the worms were bitten in half, and one half was left in the Maito, and the other half went into his stomach.
Li Du felt a little disgusted, but the thing really tasted good, so he stopped looking at it and continued to eat happily. He also decided to try Munish.
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