Female badger who killed herself

One snowy day in my childhood, we were plagued by hunger and could not find a single thing to eat in the house.

Just after dawn, my mother shook me awake and said, "Son, get up, let's go smoke the dog badger."

I rubbed my drowsy eyes and asked, "Smoke the dog badger to get what?"

My mother stroked my head lovingly and said, "You are hungry, let's smoke the dog badger and give you meat stew."

In this way, my mother carried a wattled basket filled with wheat bran and chili firewood and pulled me towards Jiu Tou Gang.

I don't know how long it took, but we finally reached Jiu Tou Gang and found the badger hole in a hidden place.

Mother could not take a rest, and put the wheat bran and chili firewood pile at the entrance of the hole, and lit it with matches. All of a sudden, the pungent smell of smoke will be diffused. Not long after, from the cave came a burst of coughing sounds. Mother excitedly said to me: "rip the sack, the dog badger can not hold on." I hurriedly pulled the sack toward the hole. After a while, the dog badger really can not hold on, "whoosh" leaped out of the hole, just leaping into the sack. Mother hurried to clutch the bag, tied with twine, carrying the sack happily towards home.

The mother put the dog badger into the cage and then went to get a kitchen knife. I saw the dog badger for the first time, curiously lying next to the cage to watch. This is a female dog badger, very thin, the mother with a kitchen knife approached, looking very hesitant. Finally, my mother put down the knife as if she had made up her mind and said to me, "Son, do you like dog badgers?"

"Yes."

My mother said, "Son, look how poor the dog badger is, it is in tears, it must miss its children. Let's not kill the dog badger anymore, okay?"

"Mother, I'm hungry," I said to my mother, breathlessly.

"Mother, think again, see if you can borrow some sweet potato noodles first. When the relief food comes down, we will have food."

Mother put the dog badger back into the sack, carried it back to Jiu Tou Gang, and released it.

The next day the snow stopped, and my family received back 30 pounds of relief food, 20 pounds of dried sweet potatoes, and 10 pounds of sorghum. My family also temporarily survived the famine.

A few days later one night, my mother found several animals in the yard around, take a closer look, it was released the dog badger, and four small dog badgers, no doubt their children. It seems that when the badger was smoked at that time, the mother badger leaped out on her own to protect her children, risking her life. Seeing the mother dog badger looking for something, and seeing the 4 small dog badgers with deflated stomachs, the mother suddenly realized that the badgers are hungry and desperate, only to risk death to find food. The mother was moved by compassion. She took out a sweet potato noodle nest in the pot, gazed at it for a while, like a treasure, and then fondly tossed it to the mother badger. The mother badger got food gratefully looked at her mother, holding the nest step by step.

In the next month or so, the old female badger came to my house once every three days, each time, the mother from a small number of rations out of a little, to the mother badger and its children to eat.

One night, there was a sudden "thud" in the yard, like a heavy object hitting the door. My mother and I hurriedly got out of bed, opened the door, and took a kerosene lamp, it was the old female badger. The mother badger was lying on the ground, and her mouth and nose were bleeding out. Mother tried her hand on the mother badger's nose, and it was out of breath.

My mother told this strange story to the village's highly respected Seventh Master. The Seventh Master said to us, "This is the first time I've heard of the death of a female badger, it may be to repay your family for not killing and nurturing you by using its own body to get you through the spring drought."

The seventh master's words, let everyone present sigh.