Firmament

A beautiful girl is not good at dressing.

- Jingpo Clan?

Han Suleiman arranged for his family to make Salur's special rice, dried fried noodles and leaves, peacock tongue noodles, sheep's backs and meat molecules, and instructed his youngest daughter Han Sophie to serve the guests one by one.

When Master Ma heard that Han Sophie was newly widowed during a casual conversation with Han Suleiman, he glanced at Ibrahim beside him and immediately said: "These people are all soldiers, and they have not married for the time being. Ibrahim, although serving in the military, is not officially an active-duty soldier. I can be a matchmaker and make their marriage happen. "

When Ibrahim heard that Master Ma was going to be a matchmaker for him in public, his face immediately turned red with shame.

Although he had married a daughter-in-law in Gayindai, Manuri had never been in his eyes and heart. Han Sophie is slender, has a pungent personality, and is talented, so I don't feel that I have secretly liked her. Now seeing that Master Ma deigned to be a matchmaker for himself, he agreed to this family affair by the way.

The Salur people have an extremely tenacious vitality. They are strong, upright, brave and warlike, and are good at living at peace with neighboring peoples to resist foreign invasions.

Their ancestors were very few when they first came to Jishi, but after hundreds of years of vicissitudes, they not only did not merge with the neighboring ethnic groups, but absorbed the surrounding ethnic groups to form a new community with common cultural characteristics.

The culture of the Salur people is also tenaciously alive. Literature and art are mainly based on folk rap literature.

Stories include stories, myths, legends, fables, proverbs, and jokes, etc., and the language is humorous and subtle. Folk songs such as salar songs, banquet songs, and flowers are sung. Salar is a lyrical folk song sung by the common people of Salur in their own language. The banquet song is a traditional song sung at the time of marriage. Hua'er is a mountain song sung in Chinese. The lyrics are generally 4 sentences, pay attention to impromptu singing, and make good use of comparisons. Influenced by Tibetan singing, the rap of the Salur people is generally pitched with a vibrato, high-pitched and melodious.

By the age of 8 or 9, Salur girls learn to tell stories and cry marriage from their grandmothers, and embroidery and cook from their mothers. In childhood, men go to the mosque to learn to recite scriptures and receive religious education, which lays a solid foundation for the formation of future behavioral norms and ethics. As men and women get older, they should marry in a timely manner. Men have the responsibility to provide for their families. Women have an obligation to take care of the housework.

The Salur people call the Han surname Genzi, which is the root that came from the Western Regions in ancient times. More than 20 surnames, including Ma, Shen, Lan, He, Liu, and Wang, were all foreign surnames, and later integrated into the Salur ethnic group. According to the preface of the "Han Family Tree" of the Central Plains Hui people, it is recorded: "The surname Han of Caimu first originated from the West Sea Stone, and in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, the surname Han moved eastward. "

The visit to Munda led to the marriage of Ibrahim of the Sarta and Han Sophie of the Salul.

In the spring of 1925, Ibrahim returned to Gayin Dai under the pretext of visiting relatives.

He took advantage of Manuri's time to cook in the kitchen, and proposed to Ada and Grandma about marrying Han Sophie.

"What about Manuri?" asked, "She will give you a son and a daughter." "

Ibrahim said bitterly, "I really don't want to live with her. "

Mai Liyan worriedly dissuaded: "Son, the Salur people are half Sartars and half Tibetans, I'm afraid they won't be easy to get along with, right?"

Ibrahim smiled and said, "Grandma, you're hearsay. The appearance and living customs of the Salur people are similar to ours, but there are some differences in language, and the words can be spoken. "

Niu Ersa asked tentatively, "Do you want Han Sofei to be the second daughter-in-law?"

Yi Bulahim replied: "Ada, I only want Han Sophie alone. "

At this time, Niu Ersa and Mai Liyan's hearts understood, and they couldn't help it.

A few days later, Ibrahim sent the weeping Manuri back to Benkang's mother's house, paid a compensation fee to the Ma family, and ended the unhappy marriage. Later, he entrusted his children to Niu Ersa and Mai Liyan, and set out on a journey to Jishi.

Ma Daren was very happy that Ibrahim listened to his opinion, and chose an auspicious day to send a dozen officers and soldiers to accompany Ibrahim to Mengda to marry Han Sophie.

Han Suleiman set up a banquet at home and warmly entertained his new son-in-law and his party.

He arranged for his men to bring a few dishes of tea one after another. In addition to the common clear tea, milk tea, and gaiwan tea, there are also wheat teas that are fried and roasted until they are half-charred, mashed and then mashed, and boiled in clay pots to taste like coffee, and fruit leaf teas made by drying the leaves of fruit trees and stir-fried into semi-charred.

The guests drank the secret tea of the Han family, feeling that it had a unique flavor, and nodded frequently and praised it.

After drinking the tea that moistened their throats, the first course of the dishes brought by the guys was boiled cow's hooves and sheep's head.

After slaughtering the cattle and sheep, the Salurians cut off the horns, burned the fine hairs with a red-hot shovel, washed them with alkaline water, and then cut them with a sharp knife from the corners of the mouths of the cattle and sheep along the wishbone to the root behind the ears, and then split them in half with an axe, put them in a pot boiling over a high fire, and then sprinkled in wheat and simmered together until the skin fell off. At breakfast, the housewife removes the meat from the heads of the cows and sheep and divides each part into their bowls. The eyes are usually given to the elderly and are said to cure the elderly for their eyes.

The guests tasted sheep's head and cow's hooves, and each of them was served a bowl of mellow wheat kernel soup.

The guys who served the plates brought the meat sausages with a rich aroma.

The Salur people like to wash the intestines and stomachs of cattle and sheep with alkaline water, and then chop the hearts and livers of cattle and sheep into minced meat or meat puree, mix with flour, chopped green onions, etc., stuff them into the coarse intestines of cattle and sheep, and tie their mouths with fine cotton threads. The two of them work together to mix the bean noodles and white noodles into a batter and pour them into the fine intestines, and also tie the mouth with fine cotton thread. Put the thick and thin intestines together in the pot, and then put in a few pieces of breast fork meat and stew together.

Han Suleiman prepared a security knife for each guest.

Guests cut the intestines into thin slices, dip them in a sauce made with garlic, hot sauce and vinegar, and put them in their mouths to chew. The taste is delicious and full of flavor.

The third round of dishes is the "Nine Bowls and Three Elements" at the traditional wedding banquet of the Salur and Hui people. Nine large bowls are arranged in a square, and there are 3 rows in each direction. The large bowl serves a variety of dishes such as meatballs, sand, stuffy, and tendon meat.

The guests were well fed and drunk, and began to enjoy the performances of the young people.

The youth of Salur danced a four-person camel dance. This is a form of folklore that describes the Salur people who followed the white camel to Jishi. Rap mixed with dance. The action is vigorous and powerful. It is interspersed with questions and answers, which is lively and very interesting.

The band played strings made of copper and silver that resembled horseshoe shapes.

Finally, the bride Han Sophie walked out of the second floor of the fence wooden building with the support of the bridesmaids and went down to the small courtyard.

Han Sophie wore an emerald green silk veil on her head, a colorful carcasse, a black coat with shoulders, and a long string of earrings, rings, bracelets, beads and other jewelry.

Ibrahim carefully helped Han Sophie into the carriage to welcome her relatives, settled her on a fluffy velvet blanket, turned to say goodbye to Han Suleiman and his relatives, and then set out on the way back to the county seat.

Ibrahim rented a small courtyard in Beiguan, the county town of Jishi, facing the big river, and bought himself and Han Sophie a new home. Han Sophie cooks and washes clothes at home every day. Ibrahim continues to run public and private businesses for the people of Malaysia. The little life of the two of them is sweet and leisurely.

The people of Ma appreciated Ibrahim for his shrewdness and ability, as well as his loyalty and reliability. Sometimes when encountering something that is not accurate, Master Ma is not shy about it, and likes to ask for his opinion.

After half a year, Ma Daren was very dissatisfied with his relatives who took care of his shop in Pingxi, and decided to dismiss his relatives and let Ibrahim take Han Sophie to move to Pingxi to manage the fur business and gold and silver shops for himself.

Ibrahim was ordered to return the rented small courtyard and immediately took Han Sophie to Pingxi.

Pingxi is located in the valley basin in the middle reaches of the Huangshui River, surrounded by mountains, and the terrain is dangerous. There are Nanshan Mountain in the south, Beishan Mountain in the north, and the Huangshui River runs through from east to west, which is the eastern gateway of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a famous ancient city on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and one of the world's famous high-altitude cities. It is also the southern road of the ancient Silk Road and the ancient road of Tangbo, and has always been the traffic artery and military important place in the northwest, known as the key to the West Sea and the throat of the sea.

Compared with the small county town of Jishi, Pingxi is certainly a big city, not only with dense houses and a large population, but also with a developed economy and a prosperous market.

Ibrahim made a big splash in Pinxi. He and Han Sophie's life has become more comfortable.

The year after moving to Pingxi, Han Sophie gave birth to a baby girl for Ibrahim. The child's appearance is almost exactly the same as Han Sophie's. They named their daughter Zai Nai.

In the third year, Han Sophie gave birth to another girl. However, the child was weak and died shortly after birth.

Han Sophie gave birth to two girls in a row, and one died.

At that time, people were influenced by feudal traditions, and their ideologies were relatively conservative and patriarchal. Men should marry and have children when they reach adulthood. The so-called "there are three unfilial pieties, and no queen is the greatest" refers to the son. A man has a son before he has offspring.

Ibrahim's heart was clouded. He was worried that his marriage had not angered anything, and why was it so difficult to raise offspring?

In the fourth year, Han Sophie gave birth to a son who was in good health.

Ibrahim was overjoyed to see that he and Han Sophie had finally had a son, and thought that their marriage had been promised by the sky. There was a happy smile on his face for days. According to his father Niu Ersa's previous instructions, he gave his son an official name called Niu Tianshan, and gave him a scripture name called Ayub.