Zhongxiang's warm felt

I don't know what it's like in the south or anywhere else. In the northwest where I live, people's kang should be covered with felt.

Compared with the south, the northwest has a different geographical location, a great difference in climate and temperature, and it is particularly cold in winter. In early spring or early autumn, when the weather gets cold, people will spread a thick blanket on the kang at home and fill the hole with dry firewood to keep the kang warm, so that they can spend the night comfortably. Soft and warm blankets are particularly important and indispensable in the lives of local people.

Felts are mostly made of wool. In our hometown, basically every household keeps sheep, three or five or seven or eight, with different numbers. Raising sheep has many advantages. You can make money by having lambs, you can eat them when you grow up, you can roll blankets when you cut your hair, and you should eat the rest of the soup and steamed bread residue without wasting.

Before and after Duanyang Festival, the weather was very hot and the ground became warmer. The Liuchuan River has become boiling hot, and the water surface is shining with the broken gold from the sun. The children took off their clothes and got into the clear river naked, swimming at will and splashing water to play. At this time, herding sheep, grazing on the hillside or in the Woods, mostly in circles, two or three or four or five, don't eat grass at all. The reason is that the wool on the sheep's body is too thick to stand the heat, so they go straight under each other's body, or run under the shade of a tree or under the ridge of a field and hide in a hurry.

On a sunny noon, adults took their children and drove the sheep to the river to prepare to bathe them. When the sheep reached the river, they couldn't stand the scorching sun and began to run around and hide in the shade in a hurry. Adults wearing shorts, children * * *, leading the sheep slowly into the river. Sheep are used to washing and are not afraid of anything. They walked into the river step by step, cool and comfortable. When the sheep's head was not flooded, people stopped and began to wash it slowly.

Most of the wet wool is immersed in the water, and the wool on the back floats up and falls downstream along the rushing water. People bend down to grab the wool, rub it repeatedly and clean every part. After more than ten minutes, the dirty wool was washed clean, shiny and soaked with water. The body was heavy and was pushed ashore. When the sheep reached the shore and stood still, they shook their bodies hard and shook off the water in their hair, making it fluffy, like a white light cloud, refreshing.

When the weather is hottest, idle adults pull the sheep out of the sheepfold and shear them in the yard. Wool is white and bright, thick and soft, which is very beautiful. Shearing wool is like taking off a thick cotton coat for a sheep. It's not hot anymore, but the temperature has dropped. On the trimmed stubble, new fine hairs will soon grow quietly. According to the size of the sheep or the length of the wool, the cut wool has three or four catties and five or six catties, and the weight is different. If you sell wool, you can take pocket money, buy daily consumer goods, put them in plastic bags and roll carpets under the drafty eaves. People who don't have sheep, when they want to roll blankets, go to the nearby market town to buy them, or borrow some from their neighbors and return them later.

I remember when I was a child, the craftsmen who came to the village to roll blankets were strangers from other places, chattering in Dongxiang dialect, and most of them couldn't understand what they were saying. The village where my family lives is inhabited by Hui people, all of whom speak Chinese, and there are also Chinese classes in the school. I have received Chinese education since I was a child. Guests come to my home, especially my uncle and aunt or their home, and speak Dongxiang with my mother, with a smile on her face. Whatever you say, the language is very enjoyable, and I don't know what it means. I listened quietly, but I didn't understand anything I seem to be an outsider. After listening for a long time, I can know something more or less, such as the names of utensils, common words and so on.

In our Dongxiang nationality, there are many skilled craftsmen, such as bowls, blacksmiths, coppersmith, carpenters and felters, which can be said to be countless. In August and September, the crops were harvested, and people were idle, and craftsmen were idle. Three or four kindred spirits and close friends carried huge bows, wickers and bamboo curtains to a nearby village to roll blankets.

According to historical records, felt rolling technology was first introduced from Mongolian nomadic tribes and has a history of thousands of years. By the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongolian, Hui, Han, Dongxiang, Salar, Baoan and other ethnic minorities living together in northwest China had been in constant contact, harmonious and friendly. The felt made by Mongolians is clean, beautiful, soft, thick and durable, which is widely welcomed by other ethnic groups. They actively learn and master the felt technology for their own use. In this way, the traditional Mongolian rolling pin technique has been spread from one story to another, and it has been widely used in people's daily life, bringing great convenience. Later, with the continuous development of this technology, the profession of felting workers appeared.

The material of the felt is mostly wool, but there are also cow hairs. The felt rolled out of cow hair is not too soft and easy to fall off, so most of it is not used. Some people cut wool, put it under the eaves at will, or crack the wall. After a little longer, it seeps into the rain, and it is wet and twisted into a knot, which is not easy to tear. Felt workers take these wool, spread it out layer by layer on the flat ground or door leaf of the yard, expose it to the sun, and pick up sheep dung eggs, weeds, pieces of cloth and other sundries inside.

Although washed, the sheared wool looks very white, but it is still dirty and extremely greasy when torn apart. In the paved wool, fine dry soil is mixed, whipped with wicker, mixed with soil and oil, rubbed and squeezed with each other, and greasy is slowly removed.

Next, in two big rooms, put up a wooden shelf, spread a flat plate the size of a kang, and started knitting. Young Felt wore protective clothing, a protective hat, a mask on his face, and a huge bow in his hand. Bang, bang, bang, his voice went up and down and spread far away. On the trembling bowstring, the hair ball kept jumping and shaking off, and the entrained sediment, dust and sand fell off one after another, making the hair unusually fluffy and white.

The wool bamboo curtain is bigger than the felt surface, which is very strong and plays the role of wrapping, rubbing and squeezing. Wool is laid on the bamboo curtain layer by layer. When it's basically right, look here and look there. Add a little to the thin part and subtract a little from the thick part until the thickness is uniform and the height is appropriate. The area of the felt is four or six feet, five or seven feet, and it is also full of two or three pages spliced according to the size of the kang. Four or six feet, five or seven feet are normal sizes, which are acceptable to most people.

There is wool on it. It's time to spray water. I don't know if the sprayer was not made at that time, or if people couldn't afford it, or if there was any special pressure. Felting workers always sprayed water with their mouths. They picked up the Tang bottle full of clear water, took a full sip, and sprayed it out on the paved wool, back and forth, and sprayed it evenly. After repeated spraying, the loose and swollen wool becomes wet, thin and strong.

On the assembled door panel, put the rolled felt, pour boiling water, and wash it repeatedly to clean the oil stain inside, so that the surface of the felt becomes bright. After washing, tie them up with three ropes and put them on the inclined door panel. Three people sat on the bench at the back, holding one end of the rope, crossing their legs and trampling up and down. When you loosen the rope, step down to squeeze out the dirty water inside. When you tighten the rope, lift it up, pour water on it, and step hard, and the dirty water will keep dripping down. Finally, open the curtain, spread it on the flat door panel, and rub it with a hook by a skilled master to make it neat, angular and elegant.

In a lively home, I still hum a long "carpet tune" when I wash the carpet. The voice is low and desolate, melancholy and touching. Most of the content reflects the hardships of life, the love between men and women and the expectation for the future. Felters roll and sing, occasionally have a cup of tea and tell a few naughty jokes to relax their tired bodies and minds.

Some flexible-minded, arrangers weave the felt-making process and necessary procedures into beautiful lyrics, and improvise and hum, rhyming catchily. It's just a song, and the woodcutter laughed heartily, and the family members who helped around him couldn't help laughing. Very lively. Those with better family circumstances, after listening to these sad songs, all feel that it is not easy for loggers to live hard when they are away from home. Felting is very tiring, their hearts are softened and their wages are increased.

When the felt is spread out, it's time to dry. The iron wire tied between the trees, the wooden pole standing at the root of the wall, and the wide door leaf lying flat are all places to dry the felt. When the sun is shining, the earth is bright and beautiful, and the felt is white and bright. Touch it gently with your hand. It's furry and warm. Naughty boy, put your face together and feel it. The light and heat on the felt, through people's skin, instantly seeped in, warm and happy.

When this family finished rolling the felt, the lumberjack took their salary, carried their equipment and went to another family to roll the felt. When Mr. and Mrs. Denfer arrived in the village, the news spread immediately and people knew it. If you want to roll the felt, take time to come to your house, get to know the situation, see if you are an acquaintance, how the felt is rolled and whether the quality is good. When you feel satisfied, say you want to roll, or save some money and set a good time to roll. Leave when you're done, or you'll be behind others. In this way, the felters went door to door, rolling blankets in turn, village by village, sometimes for more than a month, sometimes for more than two months. I didn't go home until it was too cold to roll down.

With the development of the times, machine-made felt and handmade cotton felt appeared, which are difficult to buy in the market. Traditional felting techniques are no longer prosperous, and most loggers have turned to other occupations, which is rare.

Now, I have been in this city for many years, and my vivid memories of the past are gradually fading away, which seems to have a feeling of isolation. Only the simple rolling scene and the long touching rolling melody can be remembered from time to time, and it feels so beautiful and warm.

Zhongxiang Dongxiang, a native of Kangle County, Gansu Province, is a member of the Chinese Writers Association, a talent of the "Four Groups" of Gansu Province's propaganda and cultural system, and an associate research librarian. He is the author of a collection of poems, The Journey of Mind, A Bright Spot in the Dark, Essays, Love in Hometown, Love in Salta, Essays, Charming Linxia, Yellow Land under the Sunshine, etc. His works have been selected into various literary anthologies and won literary awards such as national literature, selected novels and China writers. The collection of essays "Road in the Country" won the 5th Gansu Yellow River Literature Award and the 10th National Minority Literature Creation "Horse Award".