I am a Primitive Man
Chapter 168 – Wild grass spikes? Grains!
“Not acceptable! #@%”
At this moment, the Eldest Senior Brother and the leader of the Green Tribe had no agreement, each meticulously scrutinizing every detail.
The Eldest Senior Brother shook his head repeatedly, using gestures and a mix of Mandarin to express his thoughts to the leader of the Green Tribe. At the same time, he picked out some of the undesirable food and set them aside in a pile, with the majority being those grass-like spikes brought by the Green Tribe.
There was no silent understanding between them like during the happy gathering.
The leader of the Green Tribe, who had been closely observing the Eldest Senior Brother’s actions, became a bit anxious when he saw the Eldest Senior Brother deliberately separating and rejecting the items he added to the pile.
In a hurry, he squatted down, holding down the Eldest Senior Brother’s hand that was picking and choosing and the other hand grabbing a handful of grass spikes that the Eldest Senior Brother had rejected and abandoned. He shook his head vigorously, praising the deliciousness of these grass spikes with all his might.
Seeing that the Eldest Senior Brother continued to scrutinize him with questioning eyes, the leader of the Green Tribe, a determined character, squeezed a handful of grass spikes full of seeds, put it directly into his mouth, endured the mouth-puckering and hardness of the seeds, showed an expression of extreme enjoyment as he chewed for a while, forcibly swallowed it down, patted his chest, and fervently praised the deliciousness of the grass spikes to the Eldest Senior Brother.
The leader of the Green Tribe’s performance made the Eldest Senior Brother hesitate. Could this strange grass spike-like thing he had never seen before be so delicious?
Thinking this, he picked up one from the ground and brought it to his mouth.
Seeing that the Eldest Senior Brother was about to taste it, the leader of the Green Tribe quickly reached out to stop him. However, the Eldest Senior Brother had already taken a bite.
“Spit! Spit!”
After taking a bite, the Eldest Senior Brother kept spitting, angrily throwing away the piece of grass spike he had bitten off and found highly unappetizing.
“#￥*!”
After spitting out the grass spike, the Eldest Senior Brother angrily shouted at the somewhat embarrassed leader of the Green Tribe.
Then, he stood up, picked up a large pottery jar used for water from the side, and placed it next to the pile of food that the Green Tribe had brought and had picked through. This implied that the food brought by the Green Tribe could only be exchanged for this single pottery jar.
The leader of the Green Tribe had long coveted the large pot used by the Green Sparrow Tribe for cooking, and seeing that the Eldest Senior Brother was only willing to exchange it for a single pottery jar, he naturally disagreed.
With a series of gestures and dances, they made their points.
A perfectly normal trade turned into a scene where the two acted as if they were in a dance-off.
Han Cheng stood at the cave entrance, watching the two people who couldn’t agree, and ended up dancing. He almost couldn’t hold back his laughter.
Fu Jiang came running over, with the grass spike that the Eldest Senior Brother had thrown far away still in its mouth. It ran to Han Cheng’s side, wagging its tail, asking for a reward.
Han Cheng had trained this fellow to be quite skilled at carrying things in its mouth.
Watching the primitive dance-off between the two from a distance, Han Cheng, who was full of primitive flavor, couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
After watching for a while, he reached out without much concern, took the grass spike from Fu Jiang’s mouth, and played with it in his hand.
After playing with it for a while, his movements suddenly stopped.
He stared at the grass spike in his hand, which was now missing a quarter, and a gleam gradually appeared in his dazed eyes.
After a brief moment of bewilderment, his movements quickly accelerated. His hands, slightly trembling, held the grass spike, examining it from various angles.
The grass spike was about five or six centimeters long, with a little over one-centimeter diameter. Its color resembled the dried and yellow appearance of a plant. It was densely packed with numerous seeds of the same color.
It looked familiar, like dried dogtail grass, but thicker and longer than the typical variety. It had more seeds on top.
It also resembled the foxtail millet that would droop low to the ground in the future, but compared to those crops bearing heavy fruits, it was far less impressive.
Suppressing his excitement, Han Cheng forced himself to calm down. He plucked some seeds from the grass spike and carefully peeled them using his fingernails.
However, the first three were empty. They shriveled before Han Cheng could peel them. The fourth finally had a fruit – a tiny, pale yellow sphere appeared in his hand.
Although it was minuscule and yellow wasn’t pure, Han Cheng felt it was more dazzling than gold.
He cradled this tiny, peeled seed in his palm, raised it to eye level, and examined it as if it were the most precious treasure. He felt nothing in the surroundings compared to the allure of this tiny grain in his palm.
A red shadow quickly enlarged in front of his eyes. With a warm sensation in his hand, the red shadow and the tiny yellow seed that Han Cheng had considered an unparalleled sight disappeared.
Fu Jiang smacked its lips, feeling nothing special, shaking its head, somewhat bored, not understanding what silly thing its owner was looking at.
Ignoring the silly dog Fu Jiang, Han Cheng stared at the grass spike in his hand, which was now missing a section, and burst into silent laughter.
Millet! It was millet!
Millet, scientifically known as Panicum miliaceum or Setaria italica, was an annual herbaceous plant. It was closely related to dogtail grass and could be considered an evolution from it. It was a significant crop in the Yellow River basin.
Millet made significant contributions, especially in the early stages of Chinese civilization. The Xia and Shang civilizations could be called millet civilizations, representing the main staple!
His original plan was to wait until the Green Sparrow Tribe became safer and more prosperous. Once he grew taller, improved the weapons of the Green Sparrow Tribe, and expanded the search range with the young adults of the tribe, he would look for traces of certain things. Among them, the cultivation of millet and other primary food crops was a necessary step.
Life was always full of surprises. He hadn’t expected that before he could put this plan, which he had long conceived in his mind, into action, millet would unexpectedly appear in front of him in such a way!
Over there, the dance-off between the Eldest Senior Brother and the leader of the Green Tribe continued. It seemed that the Eldest Senior Brother was at a disadvantage again, and he placed another pottery jar in front of the pile of food.
The leader of the Green Tribe was determined to exchange it for the large pot used for cooking rice. After a series of awkward dances, he made some concessions, indicating they could do without the other pottery and needed to get that large pot.
More significant pottery took much work to manufacture.
Although the Eldest Senior Brother did not participate much in pottery making, he was familiar with this common knowledge. Plus, he was infuriated by the Green Tribe leader’s attempt to use grass seeds as food for exchange, so he naturally refused to make the exchange.