Chapter 638 Hunters in Winter
Vosted is a small town located near Chernobog, with about 5,000 residents.
In a sense, this is already a small town.
Its main population is the original aborigines of the North and early northern settlers.
This town can be regarded as a product of Perficott's early construction of the northern border.
After establishing a relatively good relationship with the local aboriginal people, some of the aboriginal people tried to come out of the forest to make contact with the northern pioneers at that time. After the two parties communicated with each other, the town gradually came into being.
Compared to the aborigines who later moved out to live with the northern pioneers because of the increasingly harsh environment and knowledge of the doomsday crisis, the aborigines here are relatively more 'civilized'.
They gave up relatively more of the original clothing and some living habits of the aborigines, and accepted more of the 'civilization' from the empire.
For the indigenous people themselves, this naturally has both good and bad consequences. The good side is that it increases their probability of survival in the face of a doomsday crisis.
Although humans are not incapable of surviving in an environment of dozens of degrees below zero, the aboriginal people in the north have also experienced snowstorms that engulfed the entire forest in winter, and continued to survive in the cold.
But every year, old people and children freeze to death, but it is also inevitable.
Compared with the empires in the industrial era, the ability of the indigenous people in the tribal era to resist disasters cannot be said to be impossible, but it can only be said to be better than nothing.
In fact, for these local aborigines, although they did arouse dissatisfaction and resistance from some elders when they first accepted the new way of life from the empire, in the face of thicker and warmer clothes, more abundant food and A warmer and more comfortable house, no matter how much the indigenous people adhere to the tradition, it is difficult to say that we just insist on the tradition of living in tents in the forest.
After all, the indigenous people are very simple, and they do value tradition, but that is more because of the lack of effective experience summarization and inheritance in tribal society. People can only integrate time-tested experience and inheritance by adhering to tradition. Survival skills are passed on to the next generation.
And when they have better and stronger survival skills, the old traditions will be quickly replaced.
At this point, they are very pragmatic. After all, those who are not pragmatic will not survive.
However, this pragmatism also brings about a small problem, that is, they do not look so 'aboriginal'.
At least in Purficott's eyes, they looked no different from ordinary Victorians. Except for a slight difference in appearance and skin color, other aspects were very similar.
"These aboriginal people seem to be more tolerant to the cold? Are they still going out hunting in this weather?" Purficott curiously asked the people next to him.
Today she was on an incognito trip to inspect the living conditions of residents in towns around Chernobog and prepare for relevant policy adjustments in the coming cold season.
"This is part of their traditional living habits. Although it is basically impossible to catch any prey in this weather, they still go out to hunt every day." The person next to Purficott answered her question, he was Wasted The local officials were called by Purficott to keep abreast of the local situation in Wasted.
Purficott was noncommittal about this answer. There was indeed nothing wrong with the hunting habits of the aborigines. As long as they did not seek death, it was okay to go hunting even in this weather.
Magistrate Wasted seemed to feel that he had not explained clearly, and did not forget to add: "Although they maintain their hunting habits, their hunting tools have been greatly improved, and they use sleds, muskets and other more modern hunting tools. Tools, not just limited to their traditional bows and arrows and traps." After hearing this, Perficott nodded slightly, but still did not comment.
For these hunters, catching prey is the most real thing. If they can catch the prey, even if they let them hit the shotgun, but if they can't catch the prey, all traditions are nonsense.
However, Purficott still became somewhat curious about these hunters. After all, it was difficult for her to imagine how these hunters hunted outside in this weather, and what kind of prey was still active in the wild in such an environment.
Unlike Shea's settlement where there is a heating field that can cover the range of animals, the heating field in this town is basically only within the town limits and does not extend outward.
Therefore, if you want to hunt animals, you really can only go through the vast snowfields and enter the colder forests to find prey that have not been frozen to death.
With this curiosity, Purficott found a group of aboriginal hunters who seemed to be preparing to go hunting. There were even two Victorians among them.
"Are you preparing to go hunting?" Purficott used fluent Aboriginal language to communicate with the aborigines.
She had spent some time learning the language of the aborigines in order to facilitate communication with the aborigines. Although she could not say that she was proficient in it, normal communication was no problem.
The hunters seemed surprised that Purficott could speak such fluent Aboriginal language. After all, she could tell at a glance that she was of extraordinary origin.
However, the hunters did not reject her and answered her question naturally: "Yes, we plan to catch more prey before winter comes. These things are very valuable now, whether they are meat or fur, they can be sold. A good price.”
"Can you still hunt prey now? I thought that with such a bad climate, all animals should have become extinct." Purficott followed the other person's words and asked, she wanted to know more about the situation.
Hearing Purficott's question, one of the older hunters chuckled and said: "Although there are indeed fewer prey than before, we can still catch them. The spirits of our ancestors are protecting us!"
Along with his words, other hunters also joined in praising the ancestors' spirits.
Purficott could tell that he was an ancestral warrior.
"May the spirits of the ancestors bless you, but how can those animals survive in such a harsh environment? Although hibernation can last for a while, it will still be unable to wake up if it is too cold, right?" Purficott also praised him smoothly, and then asked There was a question that concerned her.
Regarding this question, the elderly hunter just answered with a kind of honest smile: "Animals will always find a way to survive. They will dig holes in the snow to resist the wind and snow, and they will also look for natural Hot springs, that kind of place is a holy place for wintering! There will be a lot of prey around there.”
Purficott could tell that he probably controlled the location of a certain natural hot spring, so he still had the confidence to hunt down prey in this season.
Thinking of this, Purficott didn't ask any more questions, but just blessed them: "May the spirits of the ancestors bless you and have a good harvest."
(End of chapter)