南海潮歌

6  In the evening we got together in a small square. It was in front of Chen Ancestral Hall. In fact, it was once a place for drying grain in the sun. Babies sat or lay on the grass mats. Their mothers looked after them. If its mother was absent, its grandmother or aunt or sister replaced her. Sometimes they asked us children to fan the babies, and to drive the mosquitoes away. We were always glad to do that, because we were in a big family. I said, "Tell us a story, Aunt." Aunt said with a smile, "Well, I'll tell you 'Tiger Grandmother'. Once upon a time there was a sly tiger. One day Sister's mother went to see their grandmother. She were at home with her younger brother. The tiger dressed himself up as their grandmother. He knocked at the door. 'Sister, open the door. I am your grandmother,' said the tiger. 'Show me your hand,' said Sister. The tiger reached out to her. Sister looked at his hand and said, 'No. You're not. My  grandmother has a tiny mole on the back of her hand.' The tiger made something as a mole and cheated her. Seeing that the tiger had a tiny mole on the back of his hand, Sister said with a joy, 'You're really my grandmother. Please come in.' She opened the door and served the tiger." We said, "What a silly sister. She cannot recognize even her grandmother." Aunt said, "So a person has to learn to be smart." Then she continued the story: At night the tiger ate her brother, so Sister knew it was a tiger. She tried her best to run away, but was trapped on a tree. She had quick wits in an emergency. She pretended to comb the tiger's hair. She tied his hair to a branch. When the tiger got down from the tree, he hurt himself and became silly. He was fooled by a man who sold salt and a man who sold needles. The tiger was cut into two by a farmer at last. The piece thrown to the hill became mosquitoes and The piece thrown into the water became leeches. Aunt said, "The tiger still harms people after he died."

7  In the countryside, every family knew the tale "Tiger Grandmother". Children were enlightened by the tale: A person had to escape Quickly from the danger. If nothing could be done at the moment, the person must deal with the danger as Sister did. We had other activities besides enjoying tales. One of them was to say folk rhymes or to sing hill songs. The rhyme that we liked the best was <Moonlight lights>, children of Chen family could say it: "Moonlight lights, upon a place bright. A horse comes, a sedan-chair arrives. Carry off which man? Carry Lao Chen. Lao Chen is not at home, carry Mom. Mom goes to stool, carry Sister. Sister must feed the chickens, carry Brother. Brother is crying, carry the kitten. The kitten must catch mice, carry Grandsire." We chanted the rhyme happily When night came, especially when the moon hang up in the sky. The girls often said the rhyme first. It was as a mobilization order, everyone joined in with loud voice and deep feeling. The innocence of children was not easy to be imagined. Aunts or sisters-in-law often sang folk songs soft and ringing. Sometimes we learn to sing a few, and they would teach us. Adults also taught us to play games, mostly we play "hide-and- seek". Kejia people didn't say "hide-and- seek" but said "hide" only. Is it a wonder? In our Kejia country, there was much wonder. The game we often played was "a dog catches thieves". At the beginning of a game, only a child was knocked out to act as a dog. The child had to cry like a dog. The other acted as thieves and ran away to hide. The "dog" must go to seek and catch the "thieves". The "thief" that was caught had to be a "dog". If the "dog" couldn't catch a "thief", and they all ran back to the "home", the child had to act as a "dog" again. The younger child ran slowly and couldn't catch others, so we had to make a substitution.

8 In the countryside of China, Many activities of people are closely related to the moon. For the Chinese calendar is based on the moon. farming is according to the season, and the season of course is based on the month. Aunt said, "When the moon is round then waning, and then round again, it's a month." Hall sister-in-law said, "The moon appears on the third and lights on the fourth. It lights the whole night on the fifteenth and the sixteenth. The moon can't be seen on the first, the second, the twenty-ninth and the thirtieth." Runlian asked, "Why can't it be seen?" Aunt said, "It hides in the hills." I said, "It comes out on the third." Aunt said, "Right. It gets bigger and bigger, and then it's round and bright on the fifteenth and the sixteenth." Hall sister-in-law pointed at the moon and said, "Then the moon gets smaller and smaller until it can't be seen." I pointed at the moon, too. Mother said, "Children can't point at the moon, the moon will cut your ears." I felt my ears at once. Mother said with a smile, "Sister-in-law, tell them 'Chang'e flies to the moon'." Sister-in-law said, "Wugang and Chang'e are affectionate. They work hard and live happily. But Wugang wants to be a immortal. He smelts elixir secretly and soon he succeeds. Chang'e learns that wugang will leave her. She steals the elixir and eats it up. Then she is floating. She quickly takes hold of the lovely white rabbit and flies up to the moon." The fairy tale Inspired us with unlimited imagination. Watson asked, "Is there anyone on the moon?" His mother said, "It's so far away, who can go up?" I said, " We each install two wings and fly up there." Hall sister-in-law laughed, then she taught us how to recognize the stars, "DONGDOU is like a bottle gourd, XIDOU is like a round scoop. The Big Dipper goes around the Pole Star. Vega is a triangle, Altair has two stars." Then we could also say and recognize them.

9  It was May second, we had our Summer Social. The host was call "The head of the Social", and each family took turns to serve as host. In the morning, the host went to charge money and rice from house to house. Then he bought a big pig, a cock and a bottle of wine, some joss sticks，some firecrackers and so on. In the afternoon the pig and the cock were killed and cooked. The villagers burned joss sticks and candles, and put the pig and the chicken in front of the Earth God. Then the ceremony began. The host led us to bow to the Earth God, and said something, "Today we offer sacrifice of pork to our Social Uncle, to pray for a favorable weather, for a good harvest." We called the Earth God "Social Uncle", in fact, it was only a big stone. We worshiped it, and lit the firecrackers. Then we shared the meat and the porridge. The host cut the pig into small pieces, one share one pile. Then the lot began, so it was fair to share in the activity. The porridge was delicious, because it was cooked with the soup of meat. Every time we had our social, someone would tell the story that Emperor Qianlong ate social porridge. Many years ago, Qianlong, the emperor of Qing Dynasty inspected South China. He acted as a country folk and visited the people. He punished the corrupt officials and unscrupulous merchants. People praised and supported him. One afternoon he arrived at a village. People were having their social. They were hospitable and asked him to eat porridge. He was very hungry, so he had little choice but to eat it like wolves and tigers. He felt it was more delicious than what he ate in the palace. When he returned to the Forbidden City, he asked the cooks to cook "social porridge" for him. But he enjoyed the best food in the palace, how could he eat porridge? He said it was not tasty each time. He blamed the cooks for not cooking well, so he ordered to kill the cooks. Only a tale, believe it or not.

10 In the next early morning, I was awoken by the sound that the cicadas made. The sound was pleasing and stirring. In our small village among the hills, It was extremely quiet at night. The cicadas' singing and the cocks' crying sent away the night and greeted in the morning. They brought us children happiness. After breakfast my mother said, "Brother, go to get some leaves for making zongzi(dumplings). Thirty pieces or more are enough." There were two kinds of wild pineapples in my homeland. Local people called them"fake pineapples". The leaves of high kind were short and a little hard. It was not easy to use them. The leaves of low kind were long and soft, they were fit for wrapping zongzi. The leaves that my mother asked me to cut were the last kind. I went out with a sickle and a string. It was just hundreds of steps away. It was a little shaded and damp there. Many wild pineapples grew well. I saw Watson cutting wild pineapple leaves there, so I shouted at him, "Hey, Watson. You're so early." "Early? I'm just here and begin to cut," said Watson. I asked him, "How much rice will you wrap?" He answered, "Only several jin." I said, "We wrap just as much as you did." He said, "I asked my mother why not wrap more. She said we couldn't eat so many." I said, "My mother said she was too busy to make, but she was afraid that I would flow saliva when I saw others eating." There were three lines of thorns on the leaves. The sharp points would prick our hands if we were careless. Sometimes we touched the thorns and let out a cry, "Oh, being pricked again." Seeing that the leaves we cut were enough, we began to pare off the thorns from the leaves. After finishing the work, we glanced at our hands with flecks of blood, smiling. Then we picked up things and went home.