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墨書 Inktalez
When I was young, there were certain things you shouldn't say casually, like "I don't want to live anymore."
The elders used to say that if you said such things too often, the Demon would remember them. Over time, they would take it seriously, and who knows when they might come to "take you away."
There was a second Sister in the village who fought with her Second Brother every day. After being beaten by him, she would cry out, "I don't want to live anymore! I want to hang myself!"
One day, after another fight with Second Brother, he stormed out. second Sister felt wronged and had no one to vent to. She kept hearing a voice in her ear saying, "Come on, hang yourself! Come on, hang yourself!"
Although second Sister didn't truly want to die, her hands and feet seemed to have a mind of their own: she found a rope in the storage room, threw it over a tree branch in the yard, made a noose, and brought over a stool to stand on... Despite feeling terrified inside, her actions were beyond her control!
Just as second Sister was about to put her neck in the noose and kick the stool away, Second Brother's mother pushed the door open. Seeing this scene, she shouted and rushed over to steady the stool, then yelled for help. The kind-hearted villagers quickly came running to assist.
It was at that moment that second Sister regained her senses.
From then on, even if she fought fiercely with Second Brother, she never mentioned anything about "death" again.
It was probably last year or the year before that when a relatively young man in the village passed away. Later, those who worked with him said he would often talk about how good things were "over there," and now he had directly talked himself into leaving...
There are also some customs, like not splashing water on New Year's Day. Even if you have dirty water, you should find a bucket or something to store it until after the first day of the new year before pouring it out.
The elders say that water represents wealth; splashing water on New Year's Day is like splashing away your fortune.
Another custom is not sweeping the floor on New Year's Day because sweeping means you're sweeping away wealth. (Next chapter: Soul Loss)
Soul Loss
The elders say that a person's soul can be lost.
In my childhood, resources were scarce, and life in the countryside during my parents' youth was even more difficult.
Our neighbor, Milk Granny, recounted a year when there was a severe drought. The poor relied on the harvest from the heavens, but that year, they reaped almost nothing. One household in the village was at their wit's end; the woman made a broken basket and set out early in the morning to gather leftover wheat ears from the fields of a larger household that had water carts. However, in such a famine-stricken year, the stubble fields had already been scoured countless times by those desperate for food.
As the woman walked along, searching for wheat ears, she found very little and felt exhausted, hungry, and thirsty. She didn't know how many villages she had passed or how far she had walked. Finally, unable to go any further, she rested under a grass shed by a dry well. Just then, the weather turned foul; dark clouds rolled in, fierce winds arose, and heavy rain mixed with hail poured down. The small grass shed was instantly blown down by the storm. With no place to hide or escape, the woman was drenched and fainted from the cold.
It wasn't until dusk that her family found her unconscious after asking around. The man carried her home and fed her a large bowl of ginger soup until she finally regained consciousness, but she kept crying out, "I'm cold! The water is almost up to my neck! Pull me up!"
Her family didn't know what was wrong and called for a doctor, but he said he couldn't help her.
Feeling helpless, they tried to invite a "master" over. The master asked detailed questions about the situation and then had the family borrow livestock to pull a cart to the place where the woman had fainted. After inspecting the area, he declared that the woman had "lost her soul": the heavy rain and hail had knocked her out, causing her soul to leave her body and fall into the nearby dry well. However, due to the heavy rain, there was now rainwater in the well. While her body returned home, her soul was still struggling in the water.
This corresponded with her delirious mutterings: "I'm cold! The water is almost up to my neck! Pull me up!"
After much pleading and offering thanks to the master, he finally agreed to perform a ritual. He cut off a strand of the woman's hair and placed it in the man's arms while calling out her name: "××, come home! ××, come home!"
They could not look back or stop along the way.
After performing this ritual, the woman finally returned her soul and stopped crying out about being cold.
Later, when the woman fully regained consciousness, she said: In the storm, for some reason, she felt herself flying. She watched her body lying motionless in the heavy rain, yet uncontrollably fell into a well. As the rain outside grew heavier, the water in the well rose to her waist, then to her chest, and finally to her neck... She screamed and struggled desperately, but no one responded, and she couldn't climb back up!
It wasn't until she heard a man calling her name, urging her to come home, that she agreed to "float out" from the endless darkness and cold, following the man's voice all the way back home, merging with her physical body under the blanket on the bed.
Even now, if a child in the village cries uncontrollably for no reason and cannot be soothed no matter what, the elders in the village will still say: The child's soul is lost.
There is no rush; one hand pinches the child's ear while chanting: Pinch [Child's Name]'s ear and lips, call [Child's Name]'s soul (this must be said in a playful tone)... This is repeated several times. It is uncertain whether the child's soul is truly lost or if it has been called back, but generally speaking, the child will quiet down and stop crying. (Next chapter: Taboo)
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