Capítulo 25: Chapter 25: North American Bison
"Because he is my father." Ma Shao said confidently.
"..." The stone crow paused, wanting to ask something else but not knowing how to ask.
Everyone was eating roast beef.
"We are going to hunt buffalo for the next period of time." When the barbecue was almost finished, Stone Crow spoke again, "To replenish food and collect furs - merchants may come in the near future, and we can exchange some things."
"American businessman?" Ma Shao asked casually.
"Yes, it's white people. There are always some people who are willing to go anywhere and do anything for money." Stone Crow said, "These merchants are often dangerous. Each of them will carry a weapon. We have to be careful when the time comes."
Ma Shao felt a little excited when he heard this. After all, American businessmen would definitely bring a lot of new news from the outside world, and the Indians were too isolated from information.
But then, a problem made him a little worried.
His level of English.
As a science student from an ordinary university, Ma Shao's English level was not good to begin with. After living in Indian society where English letters were hard to find for several years, his English level became even worse.
How bad was it?
He even couldn't remember how to spell the full name of P站.
In addition, the English of this era is somewhat different from that of later times. Ma Shao felt that he probably could not understand a few words.
"When American businessmen come, how should we communicate with them?" Ma Shao asked.
"Some of them understand some Apache," Stone Crow explained. "Of course, we also have people who understand English. Normal communication shouldn't be a problem."
"who?"
"That's our high priest, it's raining."
This answer was not surprising, Ma Shao nodded.
Stone Crow said slowly: "Rainy Day is a powerful man. In addition to Apache, he also knows many languages, such as Sioux, Arapaho, Comanche... Of course, there are some white people's languages, but he said that he is not proficient in white people's languages."
This surprised Ma Shao. He didn't expect that he could master such a rich range of foreign languages on a rainy day.
Even if he is not fluent in English on rainy days, he should be better than me - Ma Shao has no confidence in his poor English.
For the next period of time, the Arapaho did not attack, and the Apaches defending this place were quite comfortable.
Ma Shao's main job is to make and promote stirrups and strong bows among the tribesmen, so that all Apaches can be equipped with these two items as soon as possible.
By then, the fighting power of the entire tribe will surely be raised to a higher level, and there will be no need to worry too much even if the Arapaho launch a large-scale attack.
During this process, Ma Shao had a lot of communication with the high priest on rainy days, and took the opportunity to "learn" some English from him.
The so-called "learning" was that Ma Shao pretended to learn English by learning the 26 English letters. Then within a few days, he showed English proficiency close to that of an elementary school student. He became the second person in the entire Apache camp who could speak English, which shocked Rainy Day and everyone else.
In addition, Ma Shao sometimes joins hunting teams and goes out of the camp to hunt North American bison.
Hunting bison is not an easy process and can be considered a low-intensity fight where people often get injured.
These bison are huge in size, weighing up to one ton, and are quite ferocious. They always appear in large groups, running rampant all over the mountains and plains.
Once a hunter is surrounded by a herd of cattle, his life is in danger. If a few cattle charge at him, both the man and the horse will die.
Of course, the Indians have been hunting these bison for a long time and are very experienced. Although injuries are inevitable, deaths are rare.
For tens of thousands of years, many Indians made their living by hunting North American bison. The huge herds of bison, as vast as the ocean, provided them with many necessary supplies such as meat, bones, furs, etc.
Now, bison also secured their most important trade route: the fur trade.
For most Indians, if they wanted to obtain things produced by white people, the main way was to find a trader and exchange furs with him.
Among all kinds of fur, bison hide is not the most expensive, but it is undoubtedly the most abundant, at least for now.
Many white people have long joined the ranks of hunting buffalo, and are almost aiming to exterminate them, because this can effectively reduce the living space of the Indians. But for now, the number of buffalo is still large, and they can also produce abundant fur.
"Boom boom boom—"
"Moo—"
On the plains, huge herds of North American bison are running, making earth-shaking hooves sounds and, of course, their calls.
As the bison herd walked, smoke and dust rose everywhere.
In the smoke and dust, skilled Apache hunters rode their war horses, shuttling back and forth between the gaps between the herds, choosing their targets and opportunities.
During this process, they must be extremely careful and vigilant at all times to avoid being surrounded by the herd of cattle, otherwise they may be trampled into meat paste at any time.
There are about seventy or eighty Apache hunters here, and Ma Shao is one of them.
He rode Black Blade through the vast herd of bison, looking for suitable prey according to the ancient and simple rules - giving priority to hunting old and solitary bison.
The Plains Indians knew very well that they could not live without bison, so in order to survive in the long run, they had to consider the survival and reproduction of the herd as much as possible when hunting.
Since the cattle must be taken care of for reproduction, calves and cows should not be killed if possible, and old and weak cattle should be the primary hunting targets. Such cattle are also easier to catch.
Soon, Ma Shao found an ideal target.
He looked around again, then drove his horse closer, drew his bow and aimed his arrow at the old bison he had chosen.
"Swoosh—swoosh—swoosh—"
He shot several arrows quickly, almost all of which hit the target. The arrowheads pierced the bison's body, causing it to howl.
North American bison are strong and of course have extraordinary vitality. At least they will not fall down after being hit by an arrow like humans.
In most cases, even if they are hit by several arrows, they will not fall to the ground immediately, but will rush around for a while until they are exhausted from blood loss.
During this period, all the hunter needs to do is stay away and let the injured bison run to death on its own. Then wait until the herd leaves the area and then go forward to collect the bison's body.
The injured old cow ran slower and slower, and soon was completely left behind by the herd of cows in front, and then fell to the ground exhausted.
Ma Shao then stepped forward, confirmed that the bison was dead, tied up its body with a rope, and waited for the hunting team's horses to arrive.
When they hunted buffalo, they also needed to bring a team of horses to haul the cattle back.
At the end of a day's hunting, the Apache hunters dragged dozens of bison carcasses back to the camp, where they were greeted by a barbecue party.
Of course, before the barbecue begins, people also need to let skinning experts peel off the bison's fur as intact as possible. The level of skinning technology will directly affect the price of the cowhide.
In the camp, the Apaches have accumulated thousands of buffalo hides and are now waiting for white fur traders to come and purchase them.
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