The past and present lives of cicadas
One
The Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi wrote in "Early Cicada": "Once you hear the sad knot, then listen to the hometown heart." The sound of new cicadas on the wei, first listen to the hun similarity. Who listens to Hengmen? In the twilight acacia flowers. ”
The hometown is a small mountain village, in front of the village is a small river. There are many gardens in the village, and there are many catalpa trees, toon trees and plane trees in the garden. There are East Garden, South Garden and West Garden around the village, and the almond trees and pear trees in the garden shade the sky. By the river, willow trees line up, willow branches hanging on the ground. There are many trees, and there are many cicadas in summer. From wheat yellow to Mid-Autumn Festival, the sound of cicadas is continuous. The sound of cicadas in my hometown is still unforgettable.
Wheat yellow season. In the evening, the sunset afterglow sprinkled all over the earth, a slight "squeak-squeak" sound came from the air, the sound was monotonous, sharp, and the penetration was very strong, Wang Wei said: "The sound of cockroaches is leisurely." Hometown calls cockroaches "whistles.". The cockroach is the smallest of the several cicadas commonly found in the homeland, earth gray, and its body is not much larger than that of a large fly.
The whistler lay on the trunk of the tree at the head of the village and made a cry. The cries fluttered through the village, surprising the old man and making the children happy. The old man sighed, the cicadas are barking again, the days are passing so fast! The children excitedly searched for the chirping cicadas.
There are more and more whistles, morning, noon, evening there are whistles, they fight for each other, do not play together, this is finished, that is called again, one after another, however, it is also continuous.
Suddenly, one day, the whistle disappeared, "the cockroach does not know the spring and autumn", the life of the whistle is very short, after the excavation, it will live for a few days. At the summer solstice, the whistles disappear. However, after the autumn, the weather turned colder and the cockroaches appeared again.
After the summer solstice, the grasshoppers begin to chirp. The Book of Verses says, "The cicadas of May chirp." And the Book of Rites records: "The summer solstice arrives, the antlers are dissolved, the cicadas begin to sing, the half summer is born, and the hibiscus is rong." "The ancients did not deceive me, just a few days after the summer solstice, the sound of grasshoppers chirping in the trees.
Grasshoppers were in the trees, chirping loudly, as if announcing to the people, I am coming. Indeed, in summer, cicadas are the protagonists of the insect world, and grasshoppers are the protagonists of the protagonists. At first it was a cicada chirping, and a few days later, it was a dozen, dozens of cicadas. After a heavy rain, there are cicadas in the trees of the village.
Old locust new willow, trees have cicadas; water Mei mountain peak, everywhere cicadas singing; maodian tile house, can not stop the sound of grasshoppers.
A cicada chirps, and the cicadas follow, forming a chorus of cicadas. Wave after wave just stopped, wave after wave started. The hotter the weather, the louder the cicadas chirp, and the night does not stop. Cicadas sing the praises of life with their own voices, and the song of summer. The chirping of grasshoppers continues from the summer solstice to the arrival of mid-autumn.
What is puzzling is that the body of the cicada is not large, how can the sound be so loud?
When the sound of the grasshoppers reaches its climax, Qingyingwa (a type of cicada) appears. Qing Yingwa's body is shorter than that of a grasshopper, and it is about the same width as a grasshopper, and she is the fat man among the cicadas. The back of the body is yellow-black, with a green pattern, and the voice that calls up is AskIng -- Asking-Responding-Wow, short and urgent, and the villagers call it Asking-Answering-wah.
Qing Yingwa appeared after the ambush, and began to chirp at dawn, as if urging people to get up and work. Hometown Youyun: "Ask should ask Ying Wow, lazy wife is numb." As soon as they heard the question, some women who had not finished rubbing the twine and the soles of their shoes panicked. It is almost autumn, the autumn air is dry, it is not suitable for rubbing the soles of the hemp thread, they have to take advantage of the weather, the air is humid and seize the time to work.
It was just dawn, and I began to chirp when I asked Yingwa. When he finished shouting on one tree, he immediately flew to the other tree and chirped. After calling, fly to another tree. The people in the village said that they would die after flying a hundred trees. When I was a child, I wondered, if this is the case, ask YingWa why she doesn't fly slowly, but instead fly from one tree to another in a hurry, so that she doesn't die faster?
Later, I understood that Qing Yingwa's life was very short, and they flew around in a hurry, looking for a partner and completing the task of mating.
Qing Yingwa is very regional, there is one on this side of the river, and there is no one on the other side of the river. Our village has it, but the surrounding villages don't have it. When I was a child, my cousins in the outer village were very envious of our village's questioning and often dragged me to arrest.
As soon as Li Qiu arrived, Qing Yingwa disappeared, and another kind of cicada, Fu Liang, appeared.
Fu Liang is a kind of cold cicada, covered in black, smaller than the grasshopper, slim body.
Fu Liang is generally on the treetops, likes to chirp in the evening, the sun goes west, the sunset is full of sky, Fu Liang is on the top of the tree, emitting a saxophone-like sound, which can be heard from a distance, making people feel homesick.
The sound of Fu Liang is very beautiful, the ancients called "Youquan Gargle Jade, QingSheng Shakes the Air, Autumn Cicada Trailing Xu" as the Three MiaoYin, autumn cicada Trail Xu said that Fu Liang.
"Cold and miserable", the cry of the cold has a sense of desolation, and the timing is after all the autumn.
Two
On summer evenings, it was sweltering in the house, and my family ate dinner on the patio. A small dining table is placed in the middle of the patio, and the horseshoe lamp hangs from the toon tree by the wall.
While eating, there are often cicadas "squeaking" and flying to the horseshoe lamp, "bang" hit the lamp, fell to the ground, flapping their wings on the ground, "fluttering" sound.
Often, the turtle would climb down the leg of the table to the table, and my father picked up the turtle and gave it to me. I sometimes put turtles in mosquito nets. The next morning, the turtle had become a hard cicada. The cicadas lie on the mosquito net, the person approaches, the cicada is frightened, and it "flutters" in the mosquito net. Lifting the mosquito net, the cicadas flew away.
Cicadas play an important role in children's lives.
Every evening, the children gathered turtles in the courtyard of the village and in the orchard next to the village. The children looked down and looked closely, and found that there were irregular holes in the ground, and the soil on the side of the holes was very thin, which was the turtle hole. The children squatted down, their fingers probing at the mouth of the hole, and the small hole became larger, revealing the thighs and eyes of the turtle. Gently pinching the front leg of the turtle, he lifted the turtle with the dirt. Sometimes, knowing that the turtle will retreat, and when it is not reachable by hand, he will find a branch and insert it into the hole. After a short time, the branches shook, and the turtle climbed up along the branches.
A heavy rain, the turtle was washed out by the rain. The children did not wait for the rain to stop, and then they wore reeds to find the turtle. Some of the turtles rushed out of the water and crawled in the water; some were still in the holes that had been opened. A heavy rain can pick up dozens of turtles.
At night, many children went to know the turtle. At that time, very few people had flashlights, and to know that the turtle was touching one tree after another, along the trunk, from the top to the root. I often touch the celestial cow, scarab beetle, etc.
The adults put the turtles caught by the children into bowls, sprinkled them with salt, and held them. More, just fried and eaten. Sometimes the child can't wait, so he puts it under the pot and cooks it to eat.
At that time, there were not many adults catching cicadas. If an adult catches cicadas, catches fish, or touches loach, the villagers will say that he is not doing his job.
A man with the surname in the village, catching cicadas and catching birds, is an alternative person in the village, and he is not young enough to say that he is not a daughter-in-law.
The man surnamed Yu sets a cicada, and the top of the long pole is tied with a ponytail knot and a wild egg-sized live knot, and a twine is tied to a section of the live knot, and the thin rope runs down the bottom of the long pole and is held in the hand holding the pole. Find the cicada in the tree, lift the long pole, put the ponytail knot on the cicada, and pull the string to trap the cicada. However, the man surnamed Yu did not have the concentration of the hunchback old man, and the pole he lifted kept shaking, and it was difficult to put the ponytail on the cicada, and the set could not cover a few cicadas for a long time.
Kids stick to cicadas. A thin pomegranate strip is inserted in one section of the long pole, and the top of the pomegranate strip is wrapped around the tendon, and the pole is raised, and the gluten sticks to the wings of the cicada, and the cicada screams with exhaustion, flapping its wings, struggling as hard as it can, but it cannot fly.
At that time, there was less wheat, white noodles were very expensive, gluten was expensive, and adults in the family did not let children use flour to pan gluten. The children secretly grabbed a handful of wheat, put it in their mouths and chewed it, chewed it back and forth, chewed it into gluten, and wrapped it in lentil leaves. There was less gluten, it ran out quickly, and the children couldn't stick a few cicadas.
The second brother opened up a new path and made a kind of arrow. The arrows were also tied to long poles, made of steel bars, with barbs and springs tied to one end. The arrow is aimed at the back of the cicada, tightening the spring to shoot out, hitting the cicada. This method is very laborious, and the second brother spent a lot of effort to make arrows, but he did not catch many cicadas.
Later, the people's liberation army lived in the village. My new house was made into a battalion headquarters. There are several large plane trees in the yard of my new house, and there are many cicadas on the trees. A few of the soldiers lit up asphalt paper at night. The asphalt paper with thick smoke burned and lit up the yard. The soldiers shook the plane trees one by one. The cicadas were frightened and flew towards the plane tree with a roar. Soon, they caught hundreds of cicadas.
Later, a few of our children also followed suit, lighting a fire under the tree and shaking the surrounding trees vigorously. However, we lit the fire not bright enough to shake the trees, and few cicadas flew to the fire.
The shell of the cicada is very hard, and some of the tails are bitter, and the people in the village rarely eat it before.
Three
I know that turtles and cicadas have high nutritional value. In the past ten years, more and more people have eaten turtles and cicadas. In the hotel, the turtle and cicada are called golden cicadas, and the price is not cheap. Those who have received turtles and cicadas have also risen in the water. More and more turtles and cicadas have been caught. Catching turtles and cicadas is no longer a children's game, but a way for some people to make money.
Those who have orchards wrap scotch tape around each trunk so that the cicadas cannot climb the trees and obediently become their pockets. There is a yard, and the turtle is raised. After autumn, look for the branches with cicada eggs and put them in the yard, so that the turtles can grow in the yard.
And more people have taken care of turtles and sticky cicadas.
After the summer solstice, every night, in the woods around the mining area where I live, the lights flicker and people come and go, and everywhere there are miners lamps and flashlights to find people who know turtles. The person who knows the turtle you come over and I go, a tree will be searched five or six times, knowing that the turtle is difficult to become a fish that slips through the net.
There are fewer turtles around the mining area, and some people begin to go to the distance to take care of the turtles. Every evening, a group of dozens of people, riding motorcycles, went out to find turtles.
Once, one of my neighbor ponies went out in a colleague's car to find a turtle. Arriving at their destination and entering the woods, the two separated and walked farther and farther. The pony got lost and couldn't find a colleague. There were no buildings nearby, and neither of the two people on the phone could tell where they were. Pony called to tell his wife that she was fidgeting, but there was nothing she could do. In the end, after much trouble, the pony found the colleague who was driving. The pony tossed all night, only touching a turtle, which was funny.
There were also two workers, both of whom were fellow villagers and had a good relationship. One night, the two rode a motorcycle to the distance to find a turtle. On the way back, a big car came on. The headlights were dazzling, and it was impossible to see the front, the motorcycle crashed into a large tree on the side of the road, and the one sitting in the back was killed on the spot, and the two families started a lawsuit and became enemies.
Some people like to take care of turtles at night, and some people like to stick cicadas during the day. At home, the husband and wife poured half a basin of white noodles into the basin, panned over and over again, scooped out a large ball of gluten, and wrapped it in a plastic bag. Grab a fishing rod, bring water and dry food, get on a motorcycle, and go out sticky cicadas.
After running for dozens of miles, when it comes to a place where there are many trees in the wild, pull open the fishing rod, wrap a large piece of gluten on the top of the fishing rod, go under the tree, see the cicada, lift the pole, and glue the gluten to the wings of the cicada.
The cicadas were glued, hissing, struggling.
With a lot of gluten, it is easy to stick cicadas, and in half a day, it sticks hundreds of cicadas. The cicadas were put into the bag and "squeaked" all the way.
When you get home, take off your wings, boil them in boiling water, and put them in the refrigerator.
Nowadays, in the countryside, more and more people have caught turtles. After the summer solstice, in the market, every day people in the countryside sell zhi turtles, and everyone sells zhi turtles, ranging from dozens to hundreds. These know the turtles either took pictures of themselves or received them in the village. The turtles in the market, no matter how many, will be sold.
People use pesticides, catch turtles, catch cicadas, and there are fewer and fewer cicadas. Now, during the wheat season, the sound of cockroaches is rarely heard.
When I was a child, there were many questions in the village, and every morning, I was woken up by the questions in the yard. Now that Fu Tian is back at home, he can sometimes hear one or two cries of asking Ying Wow, and the call is very lonely. And Fu Liang has not heard it for several years.
The cicadas in the city are more beautiful, and occasionally one or two chirp in the tall trees.
This year, there are fewer cicadas, it is almost into the ground, but I can hardly hear the sound of cicadas, and I feel a little sad.
What would a summer be like without the sound of cicadas? It may not have much impact on human life, but at least children will have less fun and summer will have less fun.