Chapter 1335: Chapter 1335
"Ancestral Spirit! Ancestors!... This... Ah, this!..."
The narrow strait was filled with surging tides, cold reefs standing firmly above the water, and the urgent cries of the whale were close at hand. Hunter Le Tian stared in amazement at the "Ice Snow Maidens" hunting the whale. He recalled his recent fear and glanced at the smiling leaders on the ship, his old face instantly flushed red.
"Uh... this... it turns out... some strange tribes from who knows where are actually whaling around the coast!..."
"Oh! Chief Divine! This group of whaling tribes... are really powerful!"
Exploration Captain Zuwaro stroked his chin, his face showing surprise, watching the mythical battle scene before him. Just ahead on the sea, a team of forty to fifty Tribal Huntsmen were hunting a giant beast over ten meters long, the immensely strong gray whale of the Northern seas!
At this moment, these strong sea hunters surrounded the crashing and calling whale, roughly divided into two parts.
They had built a wooden whaling platform on the reefs by the coast, essentially a large wooden raft. Then, seven or eight hunters stood on the raft, using very long harpoons, stabbing desperately into the whale in the sea, splashing up blossoms of blood. The sharp bone-tipped harpoons pierced the skin, sometimes taken away by the violent whale. At this time, the hunters on the raft would pull on the leather ropes attached to the harpoons, retracting them and exposing another bloody wound.
On the floating raft, there were also a few strange small drums, tossed aside for the moment. Not far from the raft, there floated a several-meter-long wooden sculpture, resembling another nodding "whale" at a glance.
Most of the hunters, however, gathered in small groups, sat in about a dozen small boats, paddling and circling around the central whale. They threw out long and tough grass nets, trapping the injured giant gray whale within, restricting its movement. They also threw out strips of whale skin and sharkskin ropes, quickly winding back and forth, trying to tightly bind the large whale’s body. As the whale continued to struggle and crash, they maneuvered the boats like fishing, loosening or tightening the binding net!
When the whale’s struggle slightly eased, the hunters on the boats would throw spears tipped with shark teeth, fiercely stabbing into the whale’s head. Their fearless posture was like warriors in an epic, battling with a mythical giant beast!
"Chief Divine witness! These hunters from who knows where, relying only on small boats, rafts, grass nets and leather ropes, along with bone and wood harpoons and spears, dare to hunt such a giant sea beast?!"
Scholar Miki stared wide-eyed, carefully observing every detail of the hunt, frequently exclaiming in awe.
"Chief Divine! Stabbing, javelin throwing, binding, entwining... Forty to fifty people cooperating together, bravely challenging the giant beast... The coordination of these huntsmen at sea, it is so seamless! They are truly the finest hunters I have ever seen!"
"Indeed! These are the best sailors I’ve seen! Sailors adapted to the Northern Land sea surface!..." Updates are released by novel⚑fire.net
Exploration Captain Zuwaro’s lips curled up, excitement showing on his face. He was pondering how to interact with this strange sea tribe when the other party directly sent a small boat towards the two large ships.
"You on the sea! Tribes on the large ship!... Together! Help us! Whaling!... This giant whale drawn by the Ancestral Spirit Wooden Drum is truly too big!"
Two tribal huntsmen paddled a swift kayak, quickly approaching the longship. The leading elder huntsman, Whale Sea, face flushed, body covered in sweat, loudly shouted towards the longship. First, he shouted powerfully in the tribe’s Nuu-chah-nulth, the same Salish language family used by the Salish people. Then he saw the blank faces on the bow, gritted his teeth, and switched to halting Penutian, which the on-board translator could barely understand.
"Ancestors’ protection! Ancestral Whale’s protection! Quick! Quick, lend a hand! The meat, skin, and oil we catch... we’ll... we’ll share equally!..."
The old huntsman Whale Sea loudly promised "equal share," with a heart feeling like it was bleeding.
The tribe’s finest huntsmen had been busy for so long, first building the wooden platform, then using the Ancestral Spirit Wooden Drum to drum, imitating the whale’s song, to lure prey from the sea. Then sending people to row small boats, with the tribe’s whale wooden sculpture nodding and shaking, enticing the "amorous" whale to drop its guard and eagerly come to "stick close"...
Finally, they pounced for an ambush! Throwing grass nets, entwining leather ropes, controlling the unresponsive whale, then spearing and harpooning! This predation process had been rehearsed hundreds of times by the tribe’s huntsmen, practiced skillfully. Yet now an accident had happened! This damned gray whale was truly too large, its skin too thick, and it bled too much... It had lost so much blood, yet it was still violently struggling in a death spasm. The binding grass net seemed about to break! Once it broke free from the bind, swimming madly into the deep sea, the tribe’s hunt would fail, not even retrieving the dozen precious whale harpoons and javelins, simply a gift to the sharks in the deep sea...
Thinking of this, the old huntsman Whale Sea glanced again at the violent huge whale nearby and the forty to fifty struggling tribemates, steeled his heart, and shouted once more.
"Tribes on the two large ships!... As long as you help, we’ll distribute the catch per capita!... Ancestor witness! Per capita share!"