Chapter 864 Parasites of the Myrrh Tree
Clods of earth were thrown out and fell to the ground. The dry soil shook off countless fine particles, which floated in the air and raised a thin layer of yellow mist.
Soon, a big pit was dug out, and everyone saw that under the inconspicuous small roots, there was actually an extremely huge rhizome, which was flat and oval, and looked like an oversized curling stone.
After the hard soil on the surface was dug up, the soil in the lower layer became loose. Seeing this, Bifang inserted the dagger into the ground and started digging directly, finally lifting the entire rhizome out of the ground.
Seeing this, Harley behind him stood up and walked forward, lowered his head and sniffed, but did not smell the scent he wanted. He called out a few times, then continued to lie on the ground, tilting his head to see what Bifang was going to do.
"This thing is quite heavy, and it takes a bit of effort."
Bifang moved out the large rhizome, placed it on the ground, brushed the dust off his hands, then pulled out a dagger and started digging at the rhizome. The hard steel and wood collided with each other, making a dull banging sound.
Amid the dull background noise, Bifang looked up at the drone and said.
"I don't know if you've ever heard of Namibia."
[I have watched the Namibian legend and was deeply influenced by the polar bears in it (eating watermelon)]
[Golden Compass, right?]
Is there a possibility that the movie is called The Chronicles of Narnia?
[It is not normal to remember it wrongly, and human memory is not something that can be trusted (it is unreasonable but also very powerful)]
"In my opinion, Namibia is as famous as Kenya. It belongs to the T1 tier, just like Egypt."
"I flew from Point Nemo to South America, and then took a plane to the Sahara Desert. I looked down at Namibia from the window, and it was also an amazingly beautiful place."
"The desert there is not yellow, but red."
The beauty of Namibia can be described as "stunning".
Namib Desert, one of the oldest and most beautiful deserts in the world.
Because the sand contains rich iron, the surface of the desert turns red after oxidation.
The color of "Red Oxide" changes greatly throughout the day as the angle of sunlight changes.
The most magical thing is the early morning or evening, when the sun shines obliquely, the side facing the sun is bright red, and the side not facing the sun is as deep as ink.
The two bright colors are extremely shocking and impactful, shaking the heart and soul. Every arc and every shadow flashes with breathtaking light.
It was dusk when the Bifang flew by. Sitting on the porthole, I looked down at the light and darkness cut by the narrow ridge of the sand dune. Both sides were half red and half black, the red was charming and the black was calm.
The red desert, carved over 80 million years, radiates charming colors and soft lines under the sunlight.
Bifang has always regretted that Namibia was not on his route across the Sahara. Of course, this is not the point he wants to talk about now.
"In the Mariental region of Namibia, there lives a primitive tribe called Bushmen, who have lived on that land for nearly 20,000 years."
Twenty thousand years!
The audience was stunned when they heard this number.
[Are you kidding me? 20,000 years? ]
[Did Fang Shen make a slip of the tongue? Are you sure it's not two thousand years? ]
"How could I make a mistake about this? That's why the Bushmen are considered the oldest indigenous people."
" Bushmen are also called 'Sang people'. The Chinese colonists named them Bushmen. Bushmen is a transliteration from our Chinese language. It originally meant people living in the bushes, which described the living conditions of Bushmen. Now it has become a consensus name for them."
"As a special group, they are the most primitive people in Africa. Most of them live in Namibia, and a small part in Botswana and Zimbabwe."
"Until about 20 years ago, the Bushmen were still in prehistory and almost unknown."
"I first learned about Bushmen from an article published in a US magazine. It was probably in the 1990s when a young female scholar came to a tribe where Bushmen lived in Botswana and stayed there for three months."
"In an academic paper, she pointed out that the Bushmen were living in poor conditions and were in danger of extinction, and called on the American politicians to urge the Botswana government to return the jungles they occupied to the Bushmen."
[I guess Lao Chou refused (dog head)]
[There is no oil underground, so how can it care whether you can survive or not?]
Seeing the comments, Bifang shook his head and said, "No, Lao Chou really intervened. At that time, Lao Chou directly wrote a memorial."
"Then, when Boguo heard Laochou's words, he immediately made a plan to return the jungle to the Bushmen."
"But not long after the Bushmen happily moved back to their original territory, geologists announced that they had discovered diamond mines in the jungle they had just moved from, shocking the world."
【！ ！ ！】
[It turns out it’s not oil, it’s diamonds! ]
[Oh my god, this move is too damaging]
"Whether there is something fishy here, I can't say for sure, but one of the most popular topics for travelers on the African continent is the Bushmen."
As the dagger cut, a lot of debris fell from the rhizome, revealing the white rhizome tissue. At the same time, everyone also saw the milky juice oozing out of it, which was obviously full of moisture.
"They live in the most barren and desolate desert areas. As the earliest overlords of this land, they make a living by hunting and gathering roots, stems and wild fruits of plants, just like in the Paleolithic Age. They have no fixed residence and often move their residences to where they can find prey."
"In order to obtain the water and food they need for survival, Bushmen often . In the winter, when water and food cannot meet their needs, they begin to migrate in different directions as a family unit, looking for food and water. However, some Bushmen are forced to gather around the only water source during the driest season of winter."
"Since they make their living by hunting, they naturally have hunting skills that other ethnic groups don't have. Similarly, they also have many unique skills for survival."
"Like the Sherpas and Bajau, the Bushmen are very resistant to thirst, to a degree that is somewhat unique, and they know exactly which plants they can eat to replenish water."
"Like the rhizome I'm digging now, it's actually derived from their survival skills. Otherwise, no one would know from a little whisker emerging from the ground that there is a plant underneath that can replenish water."
“The Bushmen would chop the rhizome into small pieces and then squeeze the juice out of it and drink it.”
"All you have to do is scrape off the shavings with a stone or a dagger, then grab a handful and squeeze it hard, pointing your thumb toward your mouth and waiting."
[The humanoid self-propelled encyclopedia is so terrifying! ]
[I often wonder whether a person’s brain capacity is limited]
[This sense of erudition is really fascinating]
[I always think that boys who know a lot are particularly attractive (shout)]
Bifang wiped his hands, held the large amount of debris that had just been cut in his hands, tilted his head back and squeezed it, and a thin stream of water flowed down his thumb and fell into his mouth.
It is cool and delicious, with a refreshing feeling.
"It tastes much better than the groundwater just now, and has a special fragrance."
"In fact, this water-rich plant is not only known to humans, but also to some animals. So after digging it out, the Bushmen will find an acacia tree nearby, pull out its branches, cover the rhizomes, and then bury the rhizomes back. After a period of time, when it grows well, it will be reused."
Bifang looked around and successfully found an acacia tree.
Cut off the branch with a dagger, drag it to the rhizome, and bury it carefully above the rhizome.
"Acacia is very common in Africa. It is actually a plant of the leguminous family. We also have some of its relatives in China, such as the albizzia tree commonly seen in parks. We can often see it in botanical gardens, roadside trees and other scenes."
"In addition, mimosa and wild locust trees in the mountains are also members of the same family as acacia."
"In southern my country, there is a type of acacia that is like a shrub. Local people eat its young leaves as wild vegetables. Remember the stinky vegetables I ate in the Xishuangbanna rainforest? That one is from the Acacia family."
“Of course, they are completely different in Africa.”
"In order to survive in the cruel local living environment. As food for herbivores, they have been coexisting in the struggle with herbivores for millions of years."
"As the most common type of tree in the savanna, acacia has thorns, and different types of acacia have different thorns."
"Look at this. The leaves haven't grown yet, but the thorns have grown quite long. The thorns can protect the young leaves and prevent some animals from climbing the tree. There are also many thorns on their trunks to prevent animals from climbing up."
“Some acacias don’t have such long thorns, but they have barbed hooked thorns that are also very powerful.”
Bifang inserted the branch into the ground , adjusted the direction, and finally wrapped the entire rhizome.
"That's about it."
After doing all this, Bifang clapped his hands and said, "In fact, we can't come back, so let's just leave this thing here. Maybe some tourists who come here will see it and use it."
[Animal: You are amazing, you are noble]
[Where did my huge rhizome go? ]
[Lao Fang: My treasure? If you want, I can give it all to you. Go find it. Everything in the world is there! ]
[The prairie era has begun! 】
Bifang and Harley continued walking northward on the grassland.
As they walked deeper and deeper, the whole grassland seemed to become more and more lively.
All kinds of hunters appear, from insects to poisonous snakes, from beasts to birds, it is an eye-opener.
The rocks slid down.
A puff adder fled quickly after being startled by the tree stick. Harley next to it was startled and almost jumped in the air, but Bifang just took a look and didn't pay too much attention to it. He had already discovered the poisonous snake hiding in the rocks from three meters away and deliberately poked the rocks to scare it away.
At this time, Bifang's attention was more on the big tree in front of him, and his expression was rather surprised.
"Myrrh tree."
[Myrrh tree? What is that?]
[I guess, it must be poisonous, and the poison is extremely strong, and there is no medicine to cure it, so it is called the myrrh tree! ]
[Fuck, this feels like the truth]
"No, that's not the case. The myrrh tree itself is not poisonous. On the contrary, its resin has medicinal properties and is especially good for relieving toothaches."
While explaining, Bifang circled around the tree, lowered his head to scan the ground, and squatted down from time to time to dig the soil, as if looking for something.
"Myrrh has the word 'medicine' in its name. Its English name Myrrh comes from the Hebrew word Murr, which means 'bitter'. It has a very profound meaning in religious history."
"In the Bible, the three wise men from the East, guided by a comet, found Jesus when he was six months old and gave him three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh."
[So Mr. Fang has a toothache? Or is he preparing a backup? ]
【What are you looking for? 】
“No.”
Bifang shook his head again. He did not have a strong desire for this great medicine.
"The myrrh tree is not poisonous, but there is a kind of beetle that likes to parasitize it. This beetle is very useful to us... Found it, here it is!"
Relying on the horrific experience of a wilderness traveler, Bifang soon found what he wanted underground near the myrrh tree - the cocoon of a Chrysomelidae beetle!
【What the hell? 】
[Fuck, what a big bug]
"A poisonous insect."
Bifang's explanation is concise and to the point.
Bushmen hunters in African countries usually use lightweight bows and arrows for hunting, which means that when facing larger prey, the bow and arrow are usually not powerful enough to cause fatal damage to the prey.
However, the Creator created another deadly weapon for the Bushmen in the vast jungle - arrow poison.
The most common bow and arrow poison used by Bushmen hunters comes from a unique insect species, the Chrysomelidae beetle.
Chrysomelidae beetles usually parasitize the body of the "complain tree"!
That's why Bifang felt surprised and delighted when he saw it.
"These cocoons are usually hidden in the ground at a depth of 0.5 to 1 meter. Each cocoon usually contains a beetle larva in a bound state before pupation. These larvae can remain dormant in the cocoon for several years."
"After obtaining the larvae or pupae of the leaf beetles, the Bushmen hunters can quickly locate the lymph in their blood system and then squeeze the hemolymph onto the arrows by hand."
“Sometimes it takes hemolymph from up to 10 larvae to poison a single arrow.”
Bifang held up the cocoon in his hand. The cocoon was very large, almost occupying half of his palm. The fat worm inside could be clearly seen through the sunlight.
"It is worth noting that hunters only apply these toxic liquids to the front end of the arrow shaft rather than the tip of the arrow, in order to prevent the arrow tip from accidentally scraping the hunter's body and causing poisoning."
Bifang put the cocoon into a small compartment in his backpack to prevent Jerry from stealing it and doing bad things. During this time, he once again pushed away Harley who came up to him out of curiosity.
Harley had never been on the grassland for so long before, so he was very curious about everything.
"The toxic substance contained in the hemolymph of the Chrysomelidae beetles is a toxic protein. As we all know, as long as it is a protein, the toxicity will gradually disappear over time, but the toxicity of the Chrysomelidae beetles is different. It usually lasts for a year."
"There are three main species of Chrysomelidae beetles that Bushmen hunters use to make arrow poison ."
"Interestingly, these three types of leaf beetles are all parasitized by walking beetles. Hey, it's really what I said. Look at this."
Bifang found another one underground, picked it up, pointed to a certain part of the worm inside the cocoon, and saw another smaller big white worm hanging on it.
"When the former cocoons, the latter larvae take the opportunity to attach themselves to the former larvae, then lie dormant in the cocoon, sucking the host's blood and soft body parts, and eventually killing the host."
"But this is not a bad thing for us. The larvae of the walking beetle are equally poisonous, and even more poisonous than the larvae of the leaf beetle. Many Bushmen hunters also prefer to use the larvae of the walking beetle to poison their bows and arrows."
"Even if you shoot a large animal like a giraffe, it usually can't hold on, but the animal can often run away 60 to 100 kilometers before it finally slows down and falls to the ground and dies, which really tests the hunter's tracking skills."
