01 Preface
The other day, I actually heard the cuckoo birds that had been away for decades outdoors. The cry of this cuckoo bird is not ''cuckoo, cuckoo'', but ''ghost shout in the mountains, ghost shout in the mountains''. This cuckoo is called the hawk. If you are interested, you can check its call online.
Usually on a clear spring day, this bird call is easy to hear in the valley. When I was a child, I often heard it, but I never saw what a bird looked like. The cry was loud and mournful, coming from the depths of the mountain forest. If it's getting late, it sounds a little scary.
When I was a child, I was greedy and used to go to the mountains in the spring to pick wild fruits and pick mushrooms. Sometimes I go to work in the fields. When the sun was about to set, I was a little scared if I heard this bird calling on the way back.
And throughout my childhood, I was afraid that my parents would divorce me, and my dad would find me a stepmother.
It all started with the legend my grandmother told me about the cuckoo bird.
02 The Legend of the Cuckoo Bird
Legend has it that on a sunny spring morning, a peasant woman asked her two sons to sow sesame seeds. The eldest son is the stepson and the younger son is biological.
The peasant woman wanted to find an opportunity to kill her stepson. So she and her two sons said, "Sesame seeds have to sprout before they can come back." Whoever sows seeds and does not germinate cannot go home. ”
The brothers came to a field in the valley and planted sesame seeds. After planting, the brothers waited for the sesame seeds to sprout. As a result, the sesame seeds planted by my brother sprouted first, and he went back first.
It was getting late, and the sesame seeds my brother had planted had not yet sprouted. Suddenly, a tiger popped out of the forest. Frightened, the younger brother ran while crying: "Brother waits for me, brother waits for me." In the end, it was eaten by a tiger.
Since then, a bird call has often been heard coming from the valley, but the bird has never been seen. The cry was loud and mournful. Bird calls are similar to "Brother waits for me, brother waits for me" or "Ghosts in the mountains shout, ghosts in the mountains shout".
People also call this bird "soul bird". Whenever this bird chirps, it reminds everyone that the season for spring sowing has arrived.
Back to that legend. Why did my brother's sesame seeds not sprout for a long time? It turned out that the farmer wanted to kill the stepson, and one of the sesame seeds was fried.
As a result, the two children accidentally exchanged sesame seeds given by their mothers while playing on the way. The cooked sesame seeds that were originally given to my brother were taken away by my brother.
So the peasant woman was heartbroken and committed suicide by taking poison. There is another bird call in the valley, similar to "no return, no return".
03 This is a different cuckoo bird call
"Brother waits for me, brother waits for me" is four cuckoos. The "ghost in the mountains shouts" is an eagle crane. "No return, no return" is the cuckoo that is often heard.
There are many legends about these cuckoo birds. Usually a legend speaks of only one bird. This legend that my grandmother told was very special, and there were three kinds of birds.
04 The influence of this legend on my childhood
Every time Grandma finished telling this legend, she would add a few more words, to the effect that the stepmother was so vicious that she could not live without her mother.
When I was a child, my parents often quarreled and divorced. My mom said every time that she wanted my sister and my brother to divorce me and let me talk to my dad.
My grandmother preferred sons to daughters. If that were the case, I would definitely find a harem for me.
Every time my parents quarreled, I was scared. Once, in the middle of the night, my mom and my dad ran away from home after a fight. When I was still in elementary school, I was alone with a flashlight and looking for my mother all over the village. I cried and called out to my mother. Finally my mother heard the crying so miserable and came back again.
Although I was not welcomed by my mother when I was a child, I listened to the stories told by my grandmother and was particularly afraid of having a stepmother. At best, my mother will scold me, not to kill me.
I was very afraid of the dark since I was a child. When you are afraid of a person, you can hear the calls of these cuckoo birds.
In the 1980s, few rural girls did not do farm work. Sometimes when I come back from school, I have to go to the field to hunt pig grass, or pick vegetables or something. On both sides were mountain roads, sometimes alone, sometimes with my sister.
Every time I hear this bird call, I am afraid. I was always afraid that something would pop up in the woods. I usually hold a stick. Also deliberately singing loudly to strengthen the guts. Fortunately, the general mountain road is only about ten minutes, and occasionally there will be people on the road.
When I was in the third year of junior high school and left the countryside, I never heard this bird call again.
05 Keep children away from horror or darkness
Grandma, she certainly wouldn't have thought of a legend that brought so much fear to my childhood.
Therefore, as parents, when we usually tell stories to our children, we must also pay attention to the content of the story.
Some children's books are a mix of Arowana. It is necessary for parents to filter the contents of books. There is content with horror, dark storylines that are not recommended for children to read.
Also don't watch scary or gory videos.
Once the fear psychology exists, it is difficult to eliminate and even affect the child's personality. For example, it makes me timid.
Everyone is welcome to share and discuss!