Caravan rules of tea-horse family

Taking the ancient tea-horse road is not an easy task-the road is difficult and the future is uncertain, so there are many taboos for horse drivers. Ma Guotou rode on a horse with a gong in his hand. Whenever he enters a village, market or road corner, Ma Guotou beats gongs rhythmically to remind people to pay attention and make way. Some cavalry teams also set up special people to knock gongs and contact horses with gongs to prevent mules from getting separated or having accidents.

There are all kinds of signals when gong is struck. If the other side needs to give way, the gong will make a clanging sound, and the horse going uphill will take the initiative to give way to the horse going downhill; When things are urgent, gongs will make a quick "clang" sound and people will take emergency measures. Fish can be known near the water, and birds can be known near the mountain. Horse drivers and mules will make up all kinds of signals-alarms. Hearing the alarm, drivers will be careful, and mules and horses will be careful. This unwritten travel rule should be observed by all caravans. Any caravan that violates the rules will be punished if it is light, led by a horse if it is heavy, or even killed for life. Coaches have been running around for years, and the environment is sinister. Natural and man-made disasters are always in danger. In order to seek peace, there are various taboos in the caravan. The caravan is on the road, the horse pot head is responsible, and there are many clothes to wear, often as many as three or five pieces. It's getting hotter and hotter after we hit the road. Even if you are sweating, you can only unbutton the head of the horse basin, and you can't take off any clothes. It is precisely because taking off clothes is like peeling, which is unlucky and should be avoided, so you can't take off your clothes no matter how hot the horse pot is.

The caravan called the journey "slightly open" and the cooking in the pot "open". When cooking with fire, don't burn firewood. Avoid saying "fire" and "firewood". Because the sound of "match" is similar to that of "tiger jackal", it means that you have met a robber. When driving a little, the saddle can only be put down, which means that the journey is smooth and must not be put backwards. Anyone who says something wrong should be corrected immediately and asked to apologize. When eating, the horse pot head sits directly opposite the rice pot, facing the direction in which the caravan walks. Fill a bowl with rice

Fill the head of the horse pot first, layer by layer, and you can't dig a hole. Don't put the rice spoon in the pot, or the horse will "put the duck" when crossing the river, that is, fall into the river. Rice should not be higher than the pot, otherwise there will be quarrels, fights and horse falls on the road.

On the way to the caravan, the spoon should be up and the bowl spoon should be flat, that is, the bowl spoon should not be turned over when pouring the soup leftovers. "Turning over" means "turning over" and "crossing the river", both of which are taboo for caravan. When you eat with the caravan, you should worry about every move. Don't turn it over.

If you want to turn the pan when cooking, you can only turn it counterclockwise slowly; You can't knock the stone of the gong pot, not even the smoke pot; Collect firewood smoothly from a mouth, don't put it on the shelf; When eating, the pot cover can only be uncovered with the pot head, and the first bowl of rice should also be added with the pot head. When adding rice, don't scoop it to the end, but scoop it down from the surface of the rice cooker layer by layer. Do not turn the rice cooker when adding rice; All people can't eat the first bowl of rice because they are afraid of rain; People can't cross fire pits and gongs and drums, and they can't block the direction to go the next day; Don't knock over the rice cooker ... when talking with the coachman, use more jargon, such as tipping (resting on the way), driving a little (having lunch), driving a little (camping in the wild), making money (salary) and so on. Some figures are unlucky, so use other words instead, such as "three", "mourning" and "God" instead.

"Homophonic taboo." Mules and horses walk in the mountains, and the most terrible thing is the attack of wolves and tigers and leopards. Therefore, the words "jackal", "wolf", "tiger" and "leopard" must not be said, even if they are homophonic. "Tiger" was renamed "Cat"; An axe sounds like a tiger's head, but it can't be called a black sheep. The "clothing" of clothes is also close to the sound of "tiger", so it should be called "fork";

The "fire" or "tiger" that makes a fire in the middle of cooking must also be called "fee"; The sound of basket is the same as that of wolf, so it can't be said that it should be called basket. The word "firewood" and "jackal" are homophonic and cannot be called "sticks". "Hug", like "leopard", can't be called, so it's called "hug"; Holding firewood has become a "holding staff lattice"!

The sound of gongs and drums is almost the same, so the caravan can't "fall" into the ditch, "fall" into the river and "fall" into the cliff, so the cauldron and the small pot become "big black" and "second black"; "Bowl" and "finished" sound similar, "finished" means finished, it's hard to say, so the bowl is called "Lotus"; Chopsticks are homophonic with chopsticks and fast. Caravans can't walk too fast, so chopsticks are called "helpers" and some are called "talc". The sound of "knife" and "down" when cutting a kitchen knife is close, so the caravan can't fall down, and the knife can't be called a knife, so it's called a piece;

You can't say "reverse" when the caravan turns back. "Anti" is unlucky, but it should be called "shake". "Ginger" and "Jiang" are homophonic, eating ginger means "eating the east", and turning ginger means "crossing the river", which is unlucky, so this "ginger" was renamed "hot food"; "Salt" is similar to "flooding", so the caravan crossing the river can't "flood", and "salt" can't be called "sea sand"; The spoon is like a horseshoe. The horseshoe doesn't just reach into the soup pot, so it was renamed as "straight". Shoes and socks are also like horseshoes, so they are called "heads up", and sandals are also like horseshoes, so they are called "ground brakes"; Rice is delicious, but fragile and unlucky, so it was renamed "Jinsha". The stove can only be called a "fire pond", and everyone doesn't want to screw things up. ...

But "Chai" is an auspicious pronunciation, similar to "wealth". Sometimes the caravan in the village buys a bundle of firewood to carry and says, "firewood (wealth) is coming!" The firewood is coming! " It seems that you can get rich in this way.

If you are going to catch the postal route at once, no matter whether you are a horse driver or an arch passenger, you should behave yourself and speak jargon. Anyone who accidentally violates the above taboos will be scolded, pay for a treat, and be expelled from the caravan if the circumstances are serious. The caravan will do everything. For example, when to travel, where to go, what business to do, whether to get rich, and even eat and sleep. The caravan attaches great importance to travel, so it is necessary to choose an auspicious day before going out and predict bad luck before going out.

There is a folk saying that "you can't go out seven times, but you can't come back eight times." It turns out that you can't go out for seven or eight days, but because there are too many days in a month, if you obey it, you can't do anything. So I only avoided the seventh and eighth days, and I didn't avoid the other days. Whoever did it did it right.

The direction to go out is also determined by divination. For example, when going out, it is lucky to go east, but there is nothing to do if you go east, so you have to walk a few steps east first and then turn west.

All caravans have their own divination methods to predict the quality of travel and luck. The divination methods of the caravan mainly include shell divination, straw sandals divination, head of a dog's head divination and initialling divination. If it is shell divination, Bai people will grab a handful of shells and throw them out. The front is all auspicious, and vice versa. If you encounter a bad omen, you should try your best to solve it.

Caravans are superstitious about straw sandals, and they usually bring straw sandals before going out. During divination, the horse pot head throws a straw sandal into the air, indicating good luck, and the direction pointed by the toes is the direction that the caravan will go; Not suitable for travel for the time being.

Caravans include wood carving, cloth measuring, bone swelling, chicken head carving, bamboo stick carving and so on. If you use bamboo sticks, take eight straws from the head of the horse basin, tie them around your waist with thread, then tie the two ends of the grass together at will, untie the waist line, unfold the grass and check the shape of the knot. Together, they are gypsies, so they can travel; If you don't connect, you will be the main murderer and you shouldn't travel. Caravans often look at money with the head of a chicken. That is, take a cooked chicken head, eat it while drinking, and watch it while eating, mainly depending on the thickness, color and shape of the maxillary head and lingual cartilage of the chicken head, so as to predict whether you can earn money.