Chapter 10 ○ one ○

Before Kunta strolled back to his mother's house that night, he was sure that everyone in the village had seen him in his cotton robe.Although he worked non-stop throughout the day, he was not tired at all, and he knew he would never be able to go to bed at the usual time.Maybe now that he's an adult, his mother will let him go to bed later.But when Lamin fell asleep, as usual, his mother told him to go to bed and told him to hang up his clothes. When he turned to leave, with an unhappy expression on his face, Binta called him back, perhaps to condemn him for such an attitude, but then he thought, maybe his mother had sympathized with him and changed her mind.Your father wants you to see him tomorrow morning.she said in a normal tone.Kunta knew in his heart that it was best not to ask, so he just said: Yes, mother.Then he said goodnight to her.He couldn't sleep no matter what now, lying under the cowhide quilt, tossing and turning, he was always suspicious of what he had done wrong.Racking his brain and thinking desperately, he still couldn't figure out what was the reason for not being punished by his mother himself?Because fathers only interfere in fairly serious matters.Then I stopped thinking about it and fell asleep.

At breakfast the next day, Kunta was so depressed that he almost forgot the joy of the cotton clothes.It wasn't until the naked little La Ming accidentally touched the cotton clothes that Kunta suddenly thought of pushing him away with his hands, but his mother's stern eyes stopped him.After breakfast, Kunta lingered for a while, hoping his mother would say something more.But when his mother acted as if she had never told him anything, he reluctantly left the house and walked slowly towards his father's house.He stood outside his father's door, his hands clasped tightly. Kunta nearly stopped breathing when Omoro appeared, handing his son a new slingshot.He stood there looking down at the slingshot and then up at his father, not knowing what to say.This is your gift for being the second generation of Cafu.Remember not to shoot things indiscriminately, but hit every shot.

Kunta only replied: Yes, Father.But the tongue seems to be tied. Besides, because you are now the second generation of Cafu, Omoro went on, meaning that you are going to start shepherding sheep and going to school.You and Tu Mani today.Tao Rui went to graze.He and the other big kids will teach you to take good care of the flock.You have to go to school tomorrow morning.As soon as Omoro walked back to his house, Kunta immediately rushed to the sheep sill like an arrow, where he found Sitafa and other children of the same generation as Kafu, all of them put on new cotton clothes Children clutching new slingshots whose fathers have died, uncles or older brothers will do it for them.

As soon as the older children opened the sills, the bleating flock rushed forward, eager to graze.As soon as he saw Tumani Omaro and Binta's eldest son, Kunta, he tried to get close to him, but Tumani and his companions kept chasing the younger children with flocks of sheep, scaring them. Get out of the way.Soon, the big belly-laughing kids and a pack of wulong dogs were running down the dusty road, driving the flock of sheep, leaving Kunta and his Kafu playmate behind, slingshots in hand, trying to Wipe off the dust on the new clothes, chasing and running aimlessly. Although Kunta had always been familiar with sheep, he had never realized that they could run so fast.Except for a few walks with his father, he had never been so far from the village to a wide pasture of short bushes and short grass, with forest and farmland on either side.The older children each put their livestock out on a different lawn, while wulong dogs patrol the neighborhood or lie next to the sheep.

Tu Mani finally decided to ignore Kunta who had been following behind him.Do you know the value of sheep?he asked.Before Kunta admitted that he didn't know, he went on: Well, if you lose a sheep, your father will let you know!So Tumani began to preach, warning him about shepherding.Above all, if a child loses a sheep through neglect or laziness, there is no end to the horrors that can happen.He pointed to the forest and said: Because those who live in it, it is the lion and the leopard that often crawl over the tall grass area.They can tear a sheep in half with a single leap from the grass.But if you follow closely, he added, you taste better than sheep!

Noticing that Kunta's round eyes were wide open with satisfaction, Tumani went on to say that if they encountered toubob who were more dangerous than lions and leopards, and with their accomplices, they would climb over the tall grass Come and catch people, then take them far away and eat them.He said that during his five years of grazing, nine children in Jiafu Village have been dragged away, and even more children from neighboring villages have been dragged away.Kunta didn't know any missing children, but he was terrified when he heard about toubob, and he didn't dare go too far from his mother's house for days on end.

But even staying in the village is not necessarily safe.Tumani said, as if he wanted to find out what was on his mind.He told Kunta that he knew of a man in Jiafu Village who lost all his property because a group of lions ate all his sheep.They caught him one night after two of the third-generation Cafo kids went missing from their home and found him hiding toubob money.He pleads that he found the money in the forest, but he also disappears the day before the Council of Elders meets to judge him.You were too young to remember, Tumani said, but it still happens, so stay out of the sight of people you trust.When you are grazing, keep your sheep out of areas of high grass or where family members might not be able to see you.

Kunta was shaking with fear, and Tumani went on to say that even if the big cat or the toubob didn't capture him, he would still be in serious trouble if the sheep got away.Because once they run into the nearby couscous and groundnut fields, they cannot be caught again.If both the child and the dog followed, the rest of the flock might follow the fleeing sheep.These hungry sheep ravage farmland even faster than baboons, elk or wild boars. When Tumani and Kunta shared the meals their mother prepared for them in the early morning, the new members of the second generation of Kafu had learned to show more respect for the sheep that had always lived around them.After dinner, some of Tumani's generation took a nap under a nearby tree, while the rest wandered around shooting birds with untried slingshots.While Kunta and his companions struggled to tend the flock, the older children yelled and talked, laughing at the younger children who were yelling frantically at the sheep looking up.When Kunta wasn't herding his sheep, he would often glance nervously at the forest, lest something lurking in it should come out and eat him.

It was only halfway through the afternoon, and the flock seemed to be full. Tumani called Kunta over and said to him sternly: Do you want me to help you collect firewood?At that time, Kunta remembered that several times when he saw the flock of sheep returning to the village in the evening, each child would carry a bundle of firewood on his head for the night fire in the village.With sheep and forests to keep an eye on, all Kunta and his companions could do was gather some light firewood and fallen twigs nearby.Kunta bundled a handful of firewood that could support his head, but Tumani deliberately added some more branches as a trick.Kunta tied the firewood with a slender vine, doubting whether he could carry the bundle over his head, let alone carry it all the way back to the village.

Thanks to the supervision and observation of the older children, Kunta and his companions managed to hold the firewood above their heads, more or less able to follow the wulong dogs and the sheep back home. They knew how to go home better than these novice shepherds. route.Mixed with the contemptuous laughter of the older children, Kunta and the other children used their hands to support the crooked firewood on their heads from time to time to prevent it from falling.When he saw the village, Kunta, who was exhausted, had never felt that it was so beautiful and lovely; but as soon as they stepped into the gate of the village, the older children concealed it perfectly, and began to shout warnings and jump around to command East directs west, so that the grown-ups can see and hear them hard at work, and know that training these bumbling novice shepherds is a tough job.The firewood on Kunta's head barely reached the teacher Brima.Sisai's backyard. He would start educating Kunta and his peers tomorrow morning.

After breakfast, each of these novice shepherds proudly brought a writing board made of poplar wood, a quill pen, and a bamboo tube filled with carbon ash to mix with water to make ink, and rushed into the academy anxiously. .The teacher regarded them as stupider than sheep and ordered everyone to sit down.As soon as he opened his mouth to speak, he walked around the students with a whip, telling them to crawl forward, and they did not respond as quickly to the first order as the teacher had expected.He frowned, looking very displeased, and further warned them not to make a sound in class, or they would be whipped.He pointed the whip severely at them, and if they were late for class, they would suffer the same fate. You are no longer children, you have responsibilities now, says the teacher, look ahead and do it well!After the lecture, he announced that the evening class would begin by reading a few lines of the Koran and memorizing them by heart.After the order, they were dismissed, because the former shepherd boys of the older students began to come one after another.They looked more nervous than Kunta's contemporaries!Because today is the final exam of Koran reciting and Arabic writing.The result of the examination is related to whether they can officially become the third generation of Kafu. That day, for the first time in their lives, each man opened the sheep pens himself, drove the sheep, and set foot on the rugged sheep trail to the pasture.The sheep might not have had enough to eat today, because Kunta and his companions drove and yelled at them every time they moved to another brush.But Kunta felt that he was more restrained than those sheep. Every time he sat down and thought about the significance of these changes in his life, it seemed that there were endless things waiting for him, and there was a place he had to go.Except for following the sheep all day long, attending classes with the teacher after breakfast and grazing, and finding time to practice slingshot before dark, he seems to be unable to find time for serious thinking.