LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 864: Parasites of the Myrrh Tree
Chunks of earth were thrown out, falling to the ground, the dry soil rustling and scattering countless fine grains into the air, raising a thin layer of yellow fog.
Soon, a large pit had been dug out, and only then did everyone see that beneath the unassuming small roots lay an extremely huge rhizome, flat and oval, resembling an oversized curling stone.
Once the top layer of hard soil had been removed, the layer below became looser. Bi Fang inserted his dagger into the ground and started digging by hand, eventually lifting the entire rhizome out of the ground.
Harley, who had been watching, got up and approached, sniffed it, but did not smell what he was expecting. He made a few noises and then lay back down on the ground, resting his head to the side to watch what Bi Fang was doing.
"This thing is quite heavy, takes quite a bit of effort."
Bi Fang lifted the large rhizome out, placed it on the ground, patted the dust off his hands, then drew his dagger and started carving into the rhizome, the clash of steel on wood producing a dull thudding sound.
Against this dull backdrop, Bi Fang looked up at the drone and said,
"I don't know if you've heard of a place called Namibia."
"I've watched 'The Legend of Namibia,' and it left a deep impression on me with its polar bears (eating watermelon)."
"The Golden Compass, right?"
"Is there a chance that the movie is called 'The Legend of Narnia'?"
"It's pretty normal to remember wrong, human memory isn't exactly reliable (though embarrassingly confident)."
"As far as I recall, the fame of Namibia should be on par with Kenya, belonging to the T1 tier, just like Egypt is well-known."
"Previously, from Nemo Point to South America, then by plane to the Sahara Desert, I've looked down through the plane's window at Namibia, another stunningly beautiful place."
"The desert there is not yellow, but a reddish color."
The beauty of Namibia can be described as "breathtaking."
The Namib Desert, one of the world's oldest and most beautiful deserts,
Due to its iron-rich sand, upon oxidation, the desert's surface turns red.
"This oxidized red," with changing angles of sunlight throughout the day,
the most magical being at sunrise or sunset, when the slanting sun casts one side in vivid red and the other in deep ink.
The striking contrast of the two colors provides a powerful emotional impact, stirring both the heart and soul, with each curved shape and shadow flickering with captivating arcs of light.
Bi Fang happened to fly over at sunset, sitting by the window, gazing down at the narrow ridges of the dunes, carving out divisions of light and dark—with one side vibrant red and the other calm black.
The red desert, sculpted by eighty million years of time, shimmered under the sunlight, casting enchanting colors and delicate lines.
Bi Fang always regretted that his route through the Sahara didn't include Namibia, but of course, that wasn't his main point now.
"In the Mariental Region of Namibia, there lives a primitive tribe called the Bushmen People, who have been inhabiting that land for nearly twenty thousand years."
Twenty thousand years!
The audience was stunned upon hearing this figure.
"Is that a mistake, twenty thousand years?"
"Did Master Fang misspeak? Are you sure it's not two thousand years?"
"There's no way I could misspeak about this; because of this, the Bushmen People are considered the oldest indigenous residents."
"Bushmen are also known as 'San People.' The Central Nation Colonizers named them Bushman, which is the transliteration of the term in our language, originally meaning those who live in shrubbery. It described the status of the Bushmen's lives, and now it has also become a universal term to address them."
"As a unique group, they are the most primitive ethnic group in Africa. Most of them live in Namibia, with a minority in Botswana and Zimbabwe."
"Until over 20 years ago, the Bushmen were still living in prehistoric times, almost unknown to the rest of the world."
"The first knowledge about the Bushmen came from an article published in a magazine from the Ugly Country during the 1990s; a young female scholar came to a Bushmen tribe in Botswana and stayed for three months."
"She indicated in an academic paper that the Bushmen were living under harsh conditions and were at risk of extinction, urging the political circles of the Ugly Country to push the Botswana government to return the jungles they occupied back to the Bushmen."
"I guess the old uglies refused (Dog's head)"
"There's no oil underground, so how could they possibly care whether you survive or not?"
Seeing the comments, Bi Fang shook his head, "No, the old uglies really got involved; they directly wrote a lengthy advisory paper."
"Then as soon as the Botswana heard from the old uglies, they quickly made a plan to give the jungle back to the Bushmen."
"But not long after the Bushmen joyfully moved back to their original territories, geologists announced the discovery of world-shocking diamond deposits in the jungle they had just left."
"!!!"
"So, it wasn't oil, it was diamonds!"
"Damn, that's too cunning."
"As to whether there was any foul play, I'm not sure, but one of the most discussed topics among travelers across the African continent is the Bushmen."
Under the cutting of the dagger, a large amount of debris fell from the roots, revealing the white root tissue, and everyone also saw the milky sap, clearly indicating ample water content.
"They live in the most barren and desolate desert regions, as the earliest rulers of this land, living like in the Old Stone Age, surviving on hunting, gathering plant roots, stems, and wild fruits, without fixed abodes, often moving their dwellings according to the locations where they can hunt."
"To get the water and food necessary for survival, Bushmen often stay in tribes during the summer, and in the winter, when water and food are insufficient, they start moving in different directions with their families in search of food and water sources. However, some Bushmen are forced to gather around the only water source during the driest season of winter."
"Since they live by hunting, naturally, they have capabilities unknown to other ethnic groups, and similarly have many unique survival skills."
"Like the Sherpa people and the Bajau people, Bushmen are highly tolerant of thirst, to a peculiar extent, and they are familiar with which plants are edible and can replenish water."
"Just as I am digging this root now, it is indeed taken from their survival skills; otherwise, nobody could know from a small root sticking out of the ground that there is a water-filled plant below."
"Bushmen cut the roots into tiny pieces and then squeeze the juice out to drink."
"What you have to do, is use a stone or dagger to scrape down shavings, then grab a handful, squeeze hard, and hold your thumb toward your mouth, waiting."
"Human walking encyclopedia, terrifyingly knowledgeable!"
"I often wonder if a person's brain capacity is really limited."
"This kind of erudition really fascinates people."
"I've always felt that knowledgeable boys are particularly attractive (shout)."
Bi Fang wiped his hands, held the freshly cut debris in his hands, looked up, squeezed it, and a thin stream of water flowed down his thumb right into his mouth.
Cool and refreshing, it had a revitalizing feel.
"Tastes much better than the groundwater just now, with a unique fresh fragrance."
"Actually, this type of water-rich plant is known not only to humans but also to some animals. So after digging it up, Bushmen will look for acacia trees nearby, pull out their branches, cover near the roots, then bury the roots back, and after some time, when they have grown, they reuse them."
Bi Fang looked around nearby and successfully found an Acacia Tree.
Using a dagger, he cut off a branch and dragged it to the rootstock, carefully burying it on top of the rootstock.
"Acacia Trees are very common in Africa. They actually belong to the legume family. We also have some of their relatives in our country, like the Albizia Trees commonly found in parks, and we often see them in botanical gardens and as street trees."
"Additionally, Mimosa pudica and wild mountain locust trees are also members of the Acacia family."
"In the southern part of our country, there are also shrubby types of Acacia, and locals even eat their tender leaves as wild vegetables. Remember the stinky vegetables I ate in the Banna Rainforest? Those were from the Acacia family."
"Of course, they are completely different in Africa."
"In order to survive in the harsh local environment. As food for herbivorous animals, for millions of years, they have been coexisting with herbivorous animals through constant struggle."
"As the most common type of tree on the sparse grasslands, Acacia Trees' method is to grow thorns, and various Acacias have various kinds of thorns."
"Look at this one, the leaves have hardly grown, but the thorns are already quite long. The thorns can first protect the young leaves from some animals climbing the trees, and their trunks also grow many thorns, preventing animals from climbing up."
"Some Acacias, although they do not have such long thorns, have hook-shaped thorns that are also very formidable."
Bi Fang inserted the branch into the ground, then adjusted its direction, and finally wrapped the entire rootstock.
"Something like this."
Having done all this, Bi Fang clapped his hands, "In fact, we can't possibly come back here, so let's just leave all these things here. Maybe someday tourists who come here will see it and make use of it."
[Animals: You're amazing, you're above it all]
[Where did my big piece of rootstock go, where did it go?]
[Old Fang: My treasure? If you want it, I can give you all of it. Go find it, everything in this world is there!]
[From then on, the Era of the Grasslands began!]
Bi Fang continued walking north through the grasslands with Harley.
As their walk deepened, the entire grassland seemed to become increasingly lively.
Various kinds of hunters appeared, from insects to venomous snakes, from mammals to birds, an eye-opening experience.
Stones slipped.
A Puffy Hissing Krait, startled by the rustling from the tree stick, swiftly fled, causing Harley nearby to jump, almost leaping mid-air; however, Bi Fang just glanced at it without much concern, having spotted the venomous snake hidden in the pile of rocks three meters away, and had intentionally poked the stones to scare it away.
At this moment, Bi Fang's attention was more on the large tree in front of him, looking quite surprised.
"Myrrh Tree."
[Myrrh Tree? What's that?]
[I guess, definitely poisonous, then the poison must be particularly strong, with no cure, so it's called a Myrrh Tree!]
[Dang, feels like the truth]
"No, it's not like that. The Myrrh Tree itself is not poisonous; on the contrary, its tree resin has medicinal properties, especially great for relieving toothache."
While explaining, Bi Fang walked around the large tree, looking down at the ground, occasionally squatting to dig in the soil, seemingly searching for something.
"The Myrrh Tree, which includes the word 'medicine' in its name, has its English name Myrrh derived from the Hebrew word Murr, meaning 'bitter,' and it holds substantial significance in religious history."
"In the Bible, when the Three Wise Men from the East found the six-month-old Jesus under the guidance of a comet, the three gifts they gave Jesus were gold, frankincense, and myrrh."
[So Old Fang has a toothache? Or is he preparing a backup?]
[Then what are you looking for?]
"Not really."
Bi Fang shook his head again, as he had no real need for this major herb.
"Myrrh trees are not poisonous, but there is a type of beetle that likes to parasitize within them, a beetle that is of great use to us... Found it, here!"
Using his terrifying experience as a Wilderness Traveler, Bi Fang quickly discovered what he was looking for underground near a myrrh tree—the cocoon of a Chrysomelidae beetle!
[What's this?]
[Damn, that's a big bug]
"A poisonous insect."
Bi Fang's explanation was concise.
In countries throughout Africa, Bushmen hunters usually make use of lightweight bows and arrows for their hunting activities, which means the bows and arrows are often not deadly enough to fatally wound larger prey.
However, the Creator provided another lethal weapon for the Bushmen in the vast jungles—arrow poison.
The most commonly used poisonous bow and arrow by the Bushmen hunters originated from a unique insect—the Chrysomelidae beetle.
And Chrysomelidae beetles typically parasitize the inside of the "Myrrh tree"!
That's why Bi Fang was surprised and delighted when he saw it.
"These cocoons are usually hidden about 0.5 to 1 meter underground, and each cocoon generally contains one beetle larva in a bound state before pupation, these larvae can remain dormant inside the cocoon for years."
"After obtaining the larvae or pupae of the Chrysomelidae beetle, Bushmen hunters can quickly locate the lymphatics in their blood system, and then squeeze the blood lymph onto the arrowhead by hand."
"Sometimes, to poison a single arrow, the blood lymph of up to 10 larvae is needed."
Bi Fang raised the cocoon in his hand, which was quite massive, almost occupying half of his palm, and through the sunlight, the plump insect inside could be clearly seen.
"It is worth noting that the hunters only apply this poisonous liquid to the front part of the arrow shaft and not the arrow tip, with the purpose of avoiding accidental contact with the hunter's own body and causing poisoning."
Bi Fang placed the cocoon in a small compartment inside his backpack to prevent Jerry from sneakily doing mischief, meanwhile pushing away Harley who had come close out of curiosity once again.
Harley, this guy, had never roamed the plains for so long and was therefore very curious about everything.
"The toxic substance contained in the Chrysomelidae beetle's blood lymph is a venomous protein, and as everyone knows, the toxicity of proteins usually diminishes over time, but the Chrysomelidae beetle's poison is different, usually lasting for a year."
"There are three main types of Chrysomelidae beetles that Bushmen hunters use to make arrow poison."
"Interestingly, these three kinds of Chrysomelidae beetles are all parasitized by the Walking Leaf Beetle, hey, speak of the devil, look at this."
Bi Fang found another one underground and lifting it up, pointing to a specific part of the insect within the cocoon, one could see another much smaller white insect clinging onto it.
"When the former encases itself in a cocoon, the larvae of the latter take the opportunity to attach themselves to the larvae of the former and then remain dormant inside the cocoon, feeding on the host's blood and the soft parts of its body, eventually killing the host."
"But this is not a bad thing for us. The larvae of the Walking Leaf Beetle are also poisonous, even more potent than the larvae of the Chrysomelidae beetle, and many Bushmen hunters prefer to use the larvae of the Walking Leaf Beetle to poison their arrows."
"Even if the targeted animal is as large as a giraffe, it usually cannot withstand the toxin, though the injured animal can often manage to flee 60 to 100 kilometers before finally slowing down and falling dead, which greatly tests the hunters' tracking skills."