Nine, twist the hemp rope

? Not long ago, I read an article about playing cotton, and the author was very impressed by the disappearance of this traditional skill. I don't know whether the cotton he saw is the same as what I saw. In a small house, more than half of it is occupied by a workbench made of wood. The flower player stands in front of the stage with a bracket on his head. The upper end of the bracket bends forward and a long bow is hung at the end. The flower picker aims the bowstring at the cotton wool or cotton on the stage with one hand and hits the bowstring with the wooden pestle with the other hand. In the beautiful string sound of "bang bang", impurities such as cottonseed were eliminated and cotton was bounced onto a big bed. After that, a smooth wooden circular plate is used to infer that the yarn is drawn and compacted layer by layer, so that a quilt is completed. The string sound of playing flowers is long and distant, and now it is no longer unpleasant. In fact, in today's rural areas, the traditional skills of playing cotton have disappeared far more than these. For example, bamboo dustpan, laundry basket, straw hat, and hemp rope twist I have experienced.

Rope is an indispensable auxiliary tool for farming, such as the rope for pulling plows and rakes, the rope for washing buckets, the rope for binding and transporting grass, the rope for moving stones and dragging trees, the rope for grazing cattle and sheep, and so on. Because of the traffic jam, the villagers are used to self-sufficiency, so every year a part of the land is set aside to grow jute and processed into hemp rope for production. Jute belongs to the genus Panicum and likes warm and humid climate. This is a long, soft and shiny fiber plant. There are many kinds of jute, and we planted the yellow-brown one at that time. Generally, dry sunny land is chosen for planting, and jute grows to more than 3 meters, with slender stems and dense stems; Leaves in a string, swaying in the wind; Everyone especially likes to play hide-and-seek in jute fields. For farmers, jute is the treasure of the whole body. In the autumn of harvest, adults and children will rush to the fields. Too many cooks will uproot jute seedlings, then tie them up, tie them up, carry them on their shoulders and carry them to the threshing floor in the village. Everyone has a clear division of labor, chop off hemp roots, remove hemp leaves, and the most important thing is to peel hemp skin. When peeling, first cut the hemp skin from the root, dig it, and pull it back with your hand, and the hemp skin will be peeled off. The peeled hemp stalks are round and smooth. After drying, it is the material for children to make small toys such as windmills and the best fuel. If it is left for a long time, it will become rotten and soft, so it can be used as fire. Hemp skin is a treasure, and rope making depends on it. Therefore, the peeled jute skin should be degummed by soaking in hemp, tied into bundles, soaked in stream water, rubbed after 7-8 days, removed some soft impurities in the skin, and then dried on the stone beach to become high-strength jute fiber.

? The next step is to twist hemp rope. At that time, the method of twisting rope was primitive, and the tools used were relatively simple, including sitting handle and vertical handle. In fact, the base of the crank is a bench nearly 100 meters long. One end supports the baffle with tenons and mortises, and two balance holes are drilled in the middle of the baffle to install the iron crank. The vertical crank is made of hardwood with a length of more than one meter and a wrist thickness, and a crank is installed at a slightly wider position in the middle. Twisting hemp rope is a way that needs the cooperation of many people. There must be at least two hand cranks, at least one hand cranks for loading hemp fibers, and several hand cranks for preparing and loading materials. Before twisting the rope, you should delimit the field and determine the length and position of different ropes. In addition, the dried hemp skin should be torn into thin strips, and the thicker and harder part should be beaten to make it soft as cotton, so as to be twisted with other hemp fibers.

On the broad roof of the house, the sitting crank was firmly tied to the ground, the baffle with the crank raised the body, and the two handle hooks stretched forward stupidly. The person in charge of the handle sits in the back, and the person wearing hemp fiber stands in front of the baffle. According to the purpose of the rope to be twisted, a certain amount of hemp fiber is hung on the handle hook. The crank rotates at a uniform speed, slowly screwing the scattered hemp fibers hanging on the hook. The person wearing hemp holds the twisted hemp fiber in one hand and continues to stick new hemp strips in the other. The crank keeps turning, and the rope looks just like it, extending until it reaches the preset length. In this way, a single strand of hemp rope is twisted. This kind of rope is not strong. You have to fold it in half and twist it into two twisted ropes. This will use a vertical crank. The operator puts the vertical handle in the corresponding position of the seat handle, hooks the hook of the handle with a hand to the middle position of a single rope, and then lets people pull one end of the rope back to the end of the handle hook of the seat handle and tie it to another handle hook. After adjusting the distance and tightness, the three cranks at both ends shake at the same time, making the hemp rope in a twisted state. At this time, the role of hemp hand has changed, and it has become the person who controls the rope rubbing process and rope density. That is, from this end of the vertical handle, insert a small wooden stick at the intersection of two ropes and slowly slide to the other end according to the torsion of the crank. After the small stick passes by, the two ropes are twisted into one. At the end, the rope end is removed from the hook of the crank and knotted, and twisted into a strong hemp rope. When the rope is twisted, the seat handle will not move, and the vertical handle will shift as the rope becomes thicker and shorter. Therefore, the operator of the vertical handle should have certain skills and experience, but also have greater strength. In operation, the hands and feet should be coordinated and synchronized, and the movement rhythm should be controlled to keep the rope straight and tight, so that the thickness of the twisted rope will be uniform. Hemp rope can be divided into the number of shares and the thickness according to different uses. For example, the rope used to hang stone trees, the rope used to pull cattle, the rope used to bind grass and the rope used to carry loads are all different in thickness and length, but the method of twisting is basically the same.

We children at the scene, watching adults operate, will inevitably be curious, so we will ask to sit on the crank and try. In most cases, we will be scolded by alcohol, but some are easy to talk about and will be allowed to become addicted. It doesn't matter if it doesn't open. Let's take advantage of the adults to call it a day, invite friends, find some hemp chips, and screw the rope in an exemplary way. Because the twisted hemp rope is on the edge of the village house, there are many people watching it, so the scene is quite lively and the whole process is also a cheerful process.

The ropes mentioned above are all used in productive labor. In fact, there are some household ropes, such as binding clothes and hanging bamboo utensils. Skilled people can also twist into thinner ropes, fill soles and mend clothes. Grandma is one of them. The winding principle of thin rope is the same as that of big rope, but the operation mode is different. One person can do it by rubbing the string. The first thing is to choose hemp skin with good elasticity and tear it into thinner silk for use. Then sit on the bench, lift your trouser legs, expose your right knee and thigh, put the hemp fiber on your thigh, pinch it with your left finger, rub it with your right palm, then fold it in half and rub it again. It is equivalent to doing the action when many people twist hemp rope, focusing on the hands and feet. I rubbed the rope, but it was always bad. The rope rubbed by my grandmother is slender, uniform and strong, and can be rolled into a big plate. Use these strings to collect soles to make cloth shoes, which are strong and easy to use and warm to wear.

While lamenting social development, we should also thank the progress of science and technology. These traditional skills, backward productivity and production methods have been replaced. For the primitive farm work of planting jute and twisting hemp rope, let alone children now, rural people around the age of 30 may have never seen it. A sigh, but not for regret!