Chapter 51: Building an Altar

After the autumn harvest, Jiang Xuan immediately began to prepare for the sacrifice.

This sacrifice is very important to the Teng tribe because it is the first formal sacrifice since the establishment of the Teng tribe.

The previous sacrifice was so shabby that after Jiang Xuan told about it, he was despised by the old witch.

"I'm a time traveler, how can I be outdone by you?"

Jiang Xuan was thinking that the standard of this sacrificial ceremony must be raised. Even if it didn't shock the old witch, at least he wouldn't let people look down on him.

At the same time, he planned to make Gan Song and the other twelve tourists officially members of the Teng tribe during this sacrificial ceremony.

In addition, because of sufficient food, Jiang Xuan planned to add more people.

As the tribe developed, the problem of insufficient manpower became increasingly apparent.

He plans to recruit another twenty or thirty tourists.

If they recruit too many people at once, the Teng Tribe won't be able to support them. If they recruit too few, they won't have enough manpower.

Therefore, by recruiting about thirty people, Jiang Xuan was confident that he could ensure they could safely survive the winter and would be easier to control.

It was already late autumn. At this time of year, the tribes would fight each other fiercely for food.

Some tribes will rise, while others will be destroyed.

Those whose tribes were destroyed and who managed to escape became tourists.

It is easiest to recruit people at this time.

Due to the shortage of food and winter supplies, the Nanhuang tribes almost never kept slaves. They either killed them or, when necessary, robbed women and children from other tribes to expand the population.

Winter is coming, and if these tourists want to survive, they must find an opportunity to join other tribes.

There is no rush to attract tourists. The most important thing right now is to prepare sacrificial offerings and build a larger altar.

That small yellow mud altar was rough and shabby, and a bigger altar had to be built.

Considering that the sacred vine is a plant and does not like stone altars, Jiang Xuan plans to dig more mud and build a larger earthen altar.

For building an altar, the best soil is five-colored soil, that is, soil of five colors: blue, red, yellow, white, and black.

Moreover, these five types of soil are required to be natural and cannot be dyed.

However, it is very difficult to find the five-colored soil because they are distributed all over the place, and the Teng tribe currently does not have the ability to do so.

Therefore, Jiang Xuan had to settle for the second best and build the altar with white clay.

The yellow mud has no toughness, and the small altar built before was covered with cracks after drying, which was very unsightly.

It is different with fine clay. Just like making pottery, you can slowly mix the clay and make it into mud bricks, which can then be built into an altar. After drying, it will not only not crack easily but also be very strong.

Jiang Xuan got down to work immediately. He gathered everyone and started digging clay and building an altar.

The stream next to the Teng tribe is very long, and there is a lot of clay on the bank, enough for building an altar.

Jiang Xuan first led his men to dig away the surface weeds, soil and stones beside the stream, revealing the grayish-white clay underneath, and then started digging hard with a bone hoe.

"Put the excavated soil directly into a rattan basket and carry it to the foot of the rocky mountain. Don't make it dirty."

Jiang Xuan dug while directing others to work.

Under his arrangement, four people were responsible for digging the clay, eight people were responsible for transportation, and three people were responsible for cleaning the ground at the foot of the stone mountain, and then mixing the clay to make mud bricks.

Two other people were responsible for dismantling the cracked yellow mud altar.

The tribesmen believe that building an altar is a very sacred thing and it is a great honor to be able to participate in it.

Therefore, everyone was enthusiastic and worked hard.

With the efforts of everyone, it only took them three days to dig enough clay to build the altar.

All the clay was transported to the foot of the stone mountain, mixed with mud, and pounded into mud bricks of similar size.

Afterwards, Jiang Xuan personally piled up the mud bricks one by one to build an altar.

This work was quite meticulous and with the help of everyone, it took another three days to complete.

With the efforts of all the people in the Teng tribe, six days later, a brand new altar was finally built! The altar was in the shape of a round table, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, three meters high, six meters in diameter at the bottom, and five meters in diameter at the top. There was a wide staircase in front to climb up to the altar.

Such an altar is very tall for a small tribe, even bigger than the bamboo house where Jiang Xuan and his friends live now.

Ordinary small tribes would never build such a large altar because they have to migrate frequently.

Even the old witch was surprised when he saw the new altar.

“After painting the totem pattern, the altar will be complete.”

Jiang Xuan picked up a few sharp pieces of stone, polished them roughly, used them as chisels, and began to carve totem patterns on the altar.

It would take too long for him to carve all the totem patterns on such a large altar by himself, so he asked Chishao to help.

To be honest, Jiang Xuan's talent for painting is not very good. After painting totem patterns for a year, the patterns are just ok, not beautiful.

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Chishao is different. Her talent for painting is much stronger than Jiang Xuan's. The totem patterns she draws seem to have a spiritual aura and are very beautiful.

Therefore, Jiang Xuan was responsible for carving the totem pattern on the back, while Chishao was responsible for carving the totem pattern on the front, and the two worked together.

It took the two of them a day to carve the totem pattern. Afterwards, Jiang Xuan made some paints, colored the totem pattern, and did the final polishing of the altar, which took another day.

Finally, after eight days of hard work, the new altar of the Teng Tribe was finally completed! "It was really not easy!"

Jiang Xuan stood in front of the tall altar, looking at the totem patterns on the altar, and sighed.

It took seventeen people eight days to complete this simple earthen altar.

If it is a stone altar, it requires polishing stone bricks and totem patterns piece by piece, and it may take half a year or even a year to complete.

"Although the altar is finished, it seems to be missing something."

Jiang Xuan looked left and right and felt that the altar alone was too monotonous.

"Oh, right, you can put two pottery tripods on the altar, and you can also put up some totem poles next to the altar. It will look much more beautiful this way."

Jiang Xuan's eyes lit up and he thought this was a good idea.

In various tribes today, tripods are used as a cooking utensil, most of which are three-legged pottery tripods.

Including the Teng tribe, they still use three-legged pottery tripods to cook food.

But Jiang Xuan knew that after the pottery tripod developed into a bronze tripod, it gradually evolved into a sacrificial ritual vessel.

People put animal blood or food in a tripod and used it to sacrifice to gods and ancestors.

In some sacrifices, aromatic plants are ground into powder and burned in a cauldron, which is called burning incense.

Burning incense is also a very important part of sacrificial rituals. However, considering that the totem god of the Teng tribe is a plant and probably doesn't like fire, Jiang Xuan does not plan to make an incense burner, which is a thankless task.

After Jiang Xuan thought it through, he immediately asked people to dig up a large pile of clay and built a larger earthen kiln to fire the pottery tripod.

Afterwards, he patiently made three tall three-legged pottery tripods with clay, and carefully carved the totem patterns of the Teng tribe and some bird and animal patterns on the outer walls.

As for the matter of erecting the totem pole, Jiang Xuan handed it over to others.

Sometimes, doing everything yourself is not a good thing. Not only will you be exhausted, but the people under you will not get the opportunity to train and perform.

Thanks to the book friend "Why do I write books so slowly" for the reward of 1,500 book coins.

(End of this chapter)