Customs and habits of Bai and Yao nationalities

Bai Yao people usually get married early. The best age for marriage is 17 to 20 years old. After 20 years old, he becomes an old man. Yao, a white man, is extremely open-minded. On the wedding day, the bride was allowed to meet her former lover. If the Bai Yao man can't stand the fact that the bride has a lover before marriage, he will be accused by people. People will think that this man is not open-minded and can say goodbye to his ex-lover from 8: 00 a.m. to 4: 00 p.m. on the wedding day of the Bai Yao bride. The farewell ceremony was completely public. The bride's family should also prepare 20 Jin of glutinous rice for the bride as the last gift for her lover.

On the wedding day, two young people stood in front of the groom's house, waiting to propose a toast to the guests. Every guest who wants to enter the groom's house has to go through the "wine" barrier set by two boys. When toasting, drink an even number, indicating that you are in pairs. On the second day of the wedding, the bride will return to her family. On the third day, when the groom went to pick up the bride, the wedding procession and the farewell procession set up a long banquet called halfway wine. Drinking in the middle, the scene is weird and grand.

Bai Yao not only had a strange wedding, but also had an extraordinary love experience. Young men and women of Bai Yao nationality are used to strolling in the night streets. Whenever they go to polder fields, after dark, young men and women of Bai Yao people flock to the lake in twos and threes to find their Mr. Right. In the moonlight, the streets are crowded with people, and white pants and the very much in love Yao and his wife can be seen everywhere. When lovers love each other so deeply, they even put their mouths to each other's ears and sing Yao songs. The song is so small that only couples can hear it, and the streets are full of romance.

Marriage custom: Bai and Yao people generally do not marry foreigners. Bai Ku Yao people have simple folk customs and unique funeral customs. Cutting cattle, playing bronze drums and jumping old monkeys are funeral ceremonies held by Bai Kuyao for the dead. The whole funeral was solemn. The sacrificial scene was solemn. This traditional funeral custom of Bai Yao nationality is not only to express the condolences of survivors to the deceased, but also a national ancestor worship activity. Because they believe that individuals and collectives are linked by ancestors and trudge side by side in the long river of years. The bronze drum and leather drum in this custom are the main percussion instruments for funeral activities, and they can't be beaten at will at ordinary times. Legend has it that Bai Kuyao's bronze drums and leather drums were used for ancient expeditions and alarms. On one occasion, Bai heel and Yao got into a fight. Being outnumbered, the leader was seriously injured and finally had to flee into the mountains. Later, the leader died of serious injuries and swallowed it. In order to offer sacrifices to the leader, Yao's cell beat gongs and drums, chopped cattle and held a grand funeral for him. Since then, bronze drums and leather drums have been associated with sacrifice. Someone died in the family, and the family of the deceased sent someone with a knife to send my uncle a funeral report before the funeral. My uncle knew the story as soon as he saw the knife. The next day, my uncle led dozens of people, carrying bronze drums and wind buckets, to the deceased's house to fight. The bronze drum is sacred to the Bai Yao people. When put into use, people will kill chickens and set off firecrackers, and hold a drum-beating ceremony at the place where the bronze drums are buried: "Bronze drums, we respect you, please speak, please tell our ancestors, and bless us with good weather and abundant crops." With these words, I took out the bronze drum and went to the funeral. After the funeral, a drum worship ceremony will be held to bury the drum so that it won't run away.

The day before the funeral, a bronze drum will be played to "clear the way" for the dead, so that more people can hear the drums and come to the funeral automatically. In Bai Kuyao's mind, cutting cattle for funeral is respect and filial piety for the elderly. They believe that cows are the crystallization of their predecessors' entrepreneurship and should go hand in hand with their predecessors. When cutting cattle, friends and relatives from all over the world came to attend this solemn ceremony. Before cutting the cow, arrange a stake about 2 meters high, put a bamboo trap on the stake, then tie the cow's nose with an iron ring, and tie a long hemp rope outside the contempt ring to let the cow rotate around the stake. Before cutting the cow, the families of the deceased lined up according to men and women, each of them fed a mouthful of grain in his hand and cried at the cow. Finally, the wizard who presided over the cow cutting ceremony sprinkled rice and read the merits and demerits of the ancestors, the experiences of the deceased and the memory of the deceased by future generations. After reading it, the cow-chopping hand took the cow-chopping knife from my uncle and cut it at the cow. After tying the cow, he took the blood of the cow, poured it into the prepared wine and put it on the bamboo slips. To drummers, to relatives and friends, to everyone.

After beheading Niu Yi, he entered the second sacrificial ceremony, playing bronze drums and dancing monkeys to inspire him. This ceremony pushed the funeral to another climax. Before beating the drum, you should sacrifice the drum first. The main drummer put the drum in the center of the field surrounded by bronze drums, and the elders in the village lit three sticks of incense, put on sacrificial heads and presented wine and rice sacrificial drums. After the big drum sacrifice, from left to right, from outside to inside, from inside to outside, take rice wine, sacrifice bronze drums and sing drum songs. After the sacrifice of the bronze drum, the main drummer began to beat the drum, and the horn trumpeter came in from both sides, blowing the horn, and the bass of the horn was spinning deeply, as if crying. After a while, the trumpeter returned to his original position and the drums began again. The main drummer put his arms flat, hit the other drum and started playing at the same time. From left to right, there was a cannon shot to bid farewell to the dead and pray for the blessing of his ancestors. As soon as the gunfire fell, the drums started again, and the rattan drumsticks knocked on the drum heart, making a drumming sound. The main drummer jumps with his legs together and beats the drum with a mallet. According to the rhythm of the drum, all the bronze drum players also knocked on the bronze drum. Those who play bronze drums are all men. They bent down and stood on one side of the drum, with a drumstick in their left hand and a wire in their right hand, gently drumming their bodies. In their right rear, another person connected the sound with the wooden air duct by hand, and swung back and forth at a certain rhythm, making the bronze drum make a deep * * * sound, which echoed in dozens of villages and valleys. The villagers heard drums, or carried bronze drums, or came with sticky rice cakes. The drums are getting louder and louder, attracting more and more people to attend the funeral, and the scene of the funeral ceremony is more grand and decent. While conducting the bronze drum performance with drums, the main drummer danced the old monkey dance to express the wishes of the people, let the souls of the deceased ascend to heaven, dispel the sad shadows in everyone's hearts and eliminate disasters. He jumped from left to right, his legs bent slightly together, and then beat the drum with two mallets. The mallets in his hand regularly hit each other from the top of his head, ears, shoulders, thighs, calves and other parts, or turn around the drum. Its dance movements are not only like an old monkey climbing up to pick fruit, but also like hoeing, digging and sowing in agricultural labor, which shows people's deep respect for the hard work of their predecessors.

The old monkey dance is also called monkey encouragement, and it is called "Peeping at Zegra" locally, which means imitating the old monkey dance. According to legend, a long time ago, an old Yao Man drummed on the mountain and drove away the monkeys who ate soybeans. At first, the monkeys were too scared to follow the drums down the mountain. Later, the stubborn monkey quietly played drums while he was asleep. When the old man woke up, he was surprised to see the monkey playing drums. Watching, he couldn't help being attracted by the monkey's drumming and dancing. He secretly remembered these movements, and when he got home, he imitated the old monkey to play drums, so he was inspired by this monkey. The deep sound of trumpets, the sonorous sound of bronze drums and the solemn sound of leather drums reverberated in the mountains for a long time, with everyone's memory, and resounded through the sky.

Bai and Yao were buried together. The same family has a fixed cemetery. People carried the coffin to the cemetery, and after burial, two round wooden pillars were erected in front of the grave, engraved with several roads and chopped horns in the middle. The more horns, the more glorious the dead. After the funeral, everyone in the undertaker can get a piece of beef and a glutinous rice balls as usual. The scene of beheading and offering sacrifices to cattle in Bai Kuyao's funeral ceremony is very similar to the cow-throwing pattern on the waist of the bronze drum in Han Dynasty unearthed in Guangnan, Yunnan. Therefore, it is an ancient custom for Bai Kuyao to behead the cow as a sign of funeral. Bai Ku Yao loves to catch mice. According to the characteristics that rats like to move at night, they put mousetraps behind the corner house, at the edge of the village, at the end of the four corners, or in the barren hills, and set up a tight encirclement every evening. The next day, the mousetrap was collected. Every time, at least 35 mice were collected, and at most 40 or 50 mice were collected. If all the rats in this village are killed, they will use their spare time to carry food rations and pick 100 rats to catch them in other nationalities, other towns and even other counties, basking in meat while catching them, and often return with full loads.

Rat meat is regarded as a delicacy by Bai Yao people, and it is mainly used for China New Year and entertaining distinguished guests. Unmarried men leave it to their cousin (lover) who comes to their hometown to "taste their hearts". If the cousin comes to the "fragrant home" and can't eat mouse meat, she is regarded as lazy and incompetent by the woman and refused to get married. The original sweetness is as light as water. The more mice young people catch, the more glory they get and the more love they get.

Bai Ku Yao's "clip" for catching mice is simple and exquisite, shaped like a bow and arrow. The bow is made of bamboo, about three feet long and the string is made of hemp rope. When catching rats, the left end of the bow is tightly inserted into the soil or crevices, and two thin bamboo pieces that are five inches long and cross into scissors are tightly tied to the bow arm five inches away from the left bow end; The upper end of the bamboo piece inclined to the left is tied with one end of the bow string and connected with the chord line at the right bow end; The upper end of the right-leaning bamboo piece is tied with a double-fold lasso, and the lasso is connected to the left bow end; The two scissors-like bamboo pieces are both in the sleeve and will not slide down; A finger-sized bamboo slip ring is tied on the right side of the upper end of the right-leaning bamboo piece, which can be buckled with a small round bamboo nail tied on the string at a distance of five inches to tighten the string (at this time, the string tied on the upper end of the left-leaning bamboo piece is loose), a small bamboo tip is horizontally placed in the scissors fork at the lower end of the small round nail, and fried food that mice like is strung on the bamboo tip. The greedy mouse put his head into the scissors to bite the food, and touched the horizontal bamboo tip, which slipped out of the scissors and affected the small round bamboo nail. The small round bamboo nail quickly slipped off the collar, and the point of action of the elastic force of the bowstring instantly moved to the left-leaning bamboo piece. The loose rope suddenly stretched, pulling the left-leaning bamboo piece to the right, and the two bamboo pieces crossed into scissors suddenly closed, and the mouse was caught in the fork and could not move.

There is also a touching legend about Bai Kuyao catching mice: According to legend, in ancient times, floods swallowed up human beings, leaving only Bai Kuyao's brother and sister. In order to reproduce, my sister gave her preserved cottonseed to her brother as a token. Who knows that the cottonseed was eaten by a mouse, and my sister was very angry and asked my brother not to get married until he killed the mouse, so my brother invented the mouse trap to kill the mouse and got a beautiful love. The custom of catching rats has been passed down from generation to generation. When Bai Yao men and women come of age, their hair will never be shaved. Men use white cloth to tightly twist the twisted hair from the back of the head to the forehead, while women comb the hair into a bun, cover it with a black cloth towel, and then tie it into a whole with white cloth straps sewn at both ends of the black cloth towel. The custom of keeping hair and wearing a headscarf is called "Baotou without hair" by Bai Kuyao, which is very unique in the customs of ethnic minorities in China. Yao cherishes the white trousers with fur. Baotou not only forbids adult men and women to have their hair cut, but also the braids that grow on their heads are no longer shaved. Even the hair that falls off every day should be carefully picked up, wrapped in paper and collected in the fence.

In Bai Yao's oral legend, their attention to hair stems from a terrible experience: a long time ago, several strange vendors with local accent went to Yaozhai to sell small commodities such as needlework. They took the initiative to attract customers by visiting the village. The goods are cheaper than the price, and the trading method is also very special. Those who can't afford it are allowed to exchange other goods, even cut hair. Villagers from poor families compete to get their hair cut in exchange for what they need. However, soon after the strange peddler left, something terrible happened. A terrible acute infectious disease appeared in Yaozhai. Many people were infected and there were corpses everywhere. After the disaster, the Yao people took the clothes of the deceased and asked the gods for a sign to find out the cause of the disaster. The fortune teller replied, "Not long ago, someone came to your village to collect hair, took it back, mixed it with needles and sand, and put a spell on it, leaving you childless." From then on, Bai Yao cherished her hair, stopped shaving and cutting it, and collected it when it fell off.