After the string rope ladder was secured, a black man bit on the wooden stick with his teeth and climbed onto the tree nimbly.
This type of big-leafed tree grew thick and tall. Wild bees usually built their hives on the thickest tree, thus they needed to prepare a lot of tools for gathering honey.
The rope ladder was their way out. If they angered the bees, they had to quickly climb down the rope ladder to escape. If not, because the tree was over ten meters high, they would either die from the stinging bees or die from the fall jumping out of the tree.
The first person to climb the tree went to hang the rope ladder, and the others got their honey gathering tools ready, and held fire torches as they started climbing.
Li Du asked, "What are these fire torches for? Is it to create smoke to kill the bees?"