This Is My Primitive Tribe-Chapter 55 - 51: Building the Altar

After the autumn harvest ended, Jiang Xuan immediately started preparing for the sacrifices.

This sacrifice is very important for the Vine Tribe because it’s their first official sacrifice since the tribe was established.

The previous sacrifice was so shabby that Jiang Xuan was despised by the Old Witch after he talked it out.

"I, a traveler, can’t be outdone by you," he mused.

Jiang Xuan figured that the specifications for this sacrifice ceremony must be improved, if not to amaze the Old Witch, at least not to look down upon.

At the same time, he prepared to officially integrate Gan Song and twelve other wanderers into the Vine Tribe during this sacrifice ceremony.

In addition, because food is abundant, Jiang Xuan prepared to grow the population further.

As the tribe develops, the shortage of manpower becomes increasingly evident.

He plans to recruit another twenty to thirty wanderers.

If too many are recruited at once, the Vine Tribe simply can’t sustain them; too few, and manpower is still insufficient.

So, recruiting around thirty people, Jiang Xuan believes he can ensure they survive the winter and control them easily.

It’s the deep autumn when tribes fight fiercely for food every year.

Some tribes rise; others are obliterated.

Those of obliterated tribes who escape become wanderers.

This is the easiest time to recruit.

Due to the scarcity of food and winter supplies, the Southern Wilderness Tribe almost never keeps slaves; they either kill them or kidnap women and children from other tribes to grow the population.

With winter approaching, wanderers seeking survival must find opportunities to join other tribes.

The recruitment of wanderers is not urgent; the most important thing now is to prepare sacrifice offerings and build a larger altar.

The small yellow mud altar was crude and shabby and must be replaced by a larger one.

Considering the Divine Vine is a plant and does not like stone-built altars, Jiang Xuan decided to dig more mud and construct a larger earth altar.

The best soil for constructing altars is Five-Colored Soil, which is composed of blue, red, yellow, white, and black mud.

Moreover, these soils should be natural and not dyed.

However, finding Five-Colored Soil is difficult because they are dispersed across the land, and the Vine Tribe doesn’t currently have that ability.

Thus, Jiang Xuan can only settle for second best and use white clay to build the altar.

Yellow mud lacks toughness; the small altar built before became full of cracks after drying, very unsightly.

Fine clay is different; much like making pottery blanks, slowly blending the clay, and forming mud bricks, then constructing the altar, after drying it is not only crack-resistant but very sturdy.

Getting down to business, Jiang Xuan gathered everyone to start excavating clay and building the altar.

The creek next to the Vine Tribe’s village was very long, its banks containing ample clay to meet the needs of constructing the altar.

Jiang Xuan first led people to clear the surface weeds, mud, and stones beside the creek, revealing the grayish-white clay beneath, and then began forcefully digging with Bone Plows.

"Dig the soil out directly into Vine Baskets and carry them to the foot of Stone Mountain, don’t dirty them,"

Jiang Xuan instructed the others as he excavated.

Under his arrangement, four people were dedicated to excavating clay, eight to transportation, and three took responsibility for cleaning the ground at the foot of Stone Mountain, blending the transported clay into bricks.

Two others dismantled the crack-ridden yellow mud altar.

The tribe members thought building an altar was extremely sacred; participating in it was a great honor.

Therefore, everyone was enthusiastic and worked tirelessly.

Thanks to everyone’s effort, they excavated enough clay to build the altar within three days,

The clay was transported entirely to the foot of Stone Mountain, blended, and beaten into uniformly sized mud bricks.

Then Jiang Xuan, with his own hands, piled the mud bricks one by one to construct the altar.

This work was more intricate; with everyone’s help, it took three more days to complete.

Through the efforts of all the Vine Tribe members, a brand new altar was finally built after six days!

The altar was round, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, three meters tall, with a six-meter diameter at the base and a five-meter diameter at the top, featuring broad stairs for ascending.

This altar was gigantic for a small tribe, even larger than Jiang Xuan and his people’s current bamboo houses.

General small tribes wouldn’t build such a large altar due to frequent migrations.

Even the Old Witch looked surprised when seeing the new altar.

"Paint the totem pattern, and the altar will be complete."

Jiang Xuan picked up a few sharp stone fragments, roughly polished them into carving knives, and began carving totem patterns onto the altar.

Such a large altar, relying on himself alone to carve all the totem patterns would take too long, so he asked Chi Shao to help.

Honestly speaking, Jiang Xuan’s drawing talent isn’t very good; after a year of painting totem patterns, they were just acceptable, not really beautiful.

Chi Shao, on the other hand, has much greater drawing talent than Jiang Xuan; her totem patterns seem to possess Spiritual Qi and are very beautiful.

Therefore, Jiang Xuan took responsibility for carving totem patterns on the back, while Chi Shao carved those on the front, working collaboratively.

Carving totem patterns took the two a day, afterward, Jiang Xuan made some paint to color the totem patterns, and performed the final polishing of the altar, which took another day. freēnovelkiss.com

Ultimately, after eight days of effort, the Vine Tribe’s new altar was truly completed!

"It’s really not easy!"

Jiang Xuan stood before the tall altar, admiring the totem patterns on it, and sighed.

Seventeen people spent eight days completing this simple earth altar.

If it were a stone-built altar, requiring each stone brick to be polished and totem patterns carved, it might take half a year or even a year to finish.

"Although the altar is done, it still seems to lack something."

Jiang Xuan looked around and found the altar alone too plain.

"Right, we can place two Pottery Cauldrons on the altar, and erect some Totem Poles around it to make it more appealing."

Jiang Xuan’s eyes lit up; he thought the idea was good.

The cauldron in current tribes is used as a utensil for boiling food, mostly three-legged Pottery Cauldrons.

Including the Vine Tribe, they also use three-legged Pottery Cauldrons for cooking food.

But Jiang Xuan knows that when Pottery Cauldrons develop into Bronze Cauldrons, they gradually transform into sacrificial ritual vessels.

People would fill them with animal blood or food, using them to sacrifice to gods and ancestors.

In some rituals, aromatic plants would be ground into powder, burned in the cauldron, known as incense burning.

Incense burning is also a very important part of sacrificial rites, but given that the Vine Tribe’s Totem God is a plant that likely dislikes fire, Jiang Xuan decided against making an incense burner, avoiding thankless efforts.

Having figured it out, Jiang Xuan immediately had people dig more clay, first built a larger earthen kiln for firing Pottery Cauldrons.

Then he patiently crafted three tall, three-legged Pottery Cauldron blanks with clay, and meticulously carved the Vine Tribe’s totem patterns and bird and beast designs on their outer walls.

As for erecting the Totem Poles, Jiang Xuan delegated the task to others.

Sometimes, doing everything by oneself is not a good thing; it exhausts oneself, and the subordinates miss out on training and opportunities to show themselves.