"The custodian of the fire?" I asked in confusion.

The tribal visitor nodded, with no expression on his gray face. He lowered his head and found a black object from his animal skin bag and gave it to me and said.

"In the tribe, I light the fire, keep the fire, and extinguish the fire."

I took the black thing and put it in my hand. It felt very light. As the powder kept falling, it dyed my palms black.

It's a piece of charcoal.

I asked: "Is this the same thing you put into the well just now?"

"Yes. Drink the water there. If it is not clean, you will die."

I now understand the identity of this tribal visitor.

The custodian of fire is a special position in the legendary primitive tribal period. Like the shaman, he is in charge of matters related to fire making in the tribe.

Perhaps the worship of fire began when humans first came into contact with wildfires in the wilderness and used them to roast food and keep warm. Scientific analysis shows that apes eating cooked meat is an important step in the evolution of human intelligence.

The key link. If humans still rely on plant leaves and fruits, the energy provided by foraging for a day will not be enough for hunting.

Therefore, after people who eat raw meat have a way to cook and preserve meat, human physical strength has become completely abundant, and more energy can be used for survival and unexpected species development.

Perhaps because I didn't respond, the tribal visitor grabbed my arm and emphasized: "The water in the well is drinkable. The water in the river is not drinkable. If you drink it, you will die."

Only then did I wake up from my trance and nodded affirmatively to this person.

So the two of us started scooping water from the simple well. Since the excavation process was done in stages, a lot of dirty water still collected in the pit, polluting the water source that seeped out later. Because we had to remove the dirty water first.

Scoop it clean and drink the water that seeps out from behind.

After scooping up about three puddles of water, the water in the simple well finally showed clean ripples.

After the water has gone through multiple filtrations of riverbank soil, leaves, charcoal, and moss, most of the impurities have been adsorbed, and the original clear river water has evolved into water that is more suitable for drinking.

The tribe visitors and I waited for the water in the simple well to settle for a while, and then we couldn't wait to take a sip.

"It tastes great! This is a reliable method!"

The tribe visitor and I looked at each other and smiled, and said in blunt words.

"You need water to have life. If the water is wrong, you will die. Many people died in the tribe before."

I was speechless.

Indeed, if such technology were used in modern society, it would just be an addition to daily life. But for tribal people, this technology may be a lesson learned through life.

"Have many people died before?" I asked.

The visitor from the tribe said: "There are many people. Drinking water, hunting, poisonous insects, and getting sick will all kill people."

"Does your tribe boil the water?" If you drink the water without boiling it, no matter how you filter it, it will be dangerous. However, after boiling the water at 100 degrees, most of the harmful substances in it will disappear, except heavy metal elements.

"For tribes, boil water. But there is nothing you can do about hunting. There is nothing you can do about migration."

This man drew symbols on the ground with branches. Many circles, which should represent the state of collective settlement. He also drew animals, which represent wild hunting. Many individuals lined up in lines, representing tribal migration.

I guess what this person expresses is that they can only drink boiled water every day when the tribe reaches the settlement. During the wild activities and tribe migration, they can only rely on this simple well to filter the water.

Find ways to find reliable water sources.

It seems that the living environment of this brown pool tribe still belongs to the stage of early nomads. After settling in one place for a period of time, they will migrate due to the exhaustion of natural resources and move collectively to another piece of land.

This situation is due to the insufficient development of agriculture, which leads to opposite growth in food acquisition and population growth. The only way to alleviate the contradiction is through migration, differentiation, and even death.

"I also want to give you fire."

After taking a sip of water, maybe he was reminded by my question, but the tribe visitor took the initiative to arrange a tinder for me to light.

"Okay, I'll excuse you. I'll treat you to dinner at noon."

Since the colonist system prompts that it is best to stay friendly with visitors, then I don’t mind playing a wild survival game with the guests from this tribe. Anyway, I can learn some skills, so why not?

The tribal visitor found that all the wood from the ranch had been collected outside the house, so he walked back to the ranch gate from the river.

As the custodian of fire, the tribal visitor is indeed an expert in building fires. This man first made an inner ring on the ground and picked up many dry stones as borders to form a tight circle. This is

As a boundary for the fire, it prevents the fire from spreading uncontrollably and igniting the trees on the side, causing a fire.

Then, the person piled some thinner firewood into a cone-shaped tent shape, leaving a certain space for placing firelighters underneath. I found that the person did not pile it too tightly when stacking, and there was a certain gap between the wooden sticks.

This can prevent the sticks from collapsing and extinguishing the fire when it is first lit. In the middle of the pile of firewood is a small fire-starting pile, made of dry and dehydrated grass blades and tree velvet, which is responsible for the initial fire-starting function.

Finally, the tribal visitor took out a small stone from the animal skin bag. The stone was hard and shiny, heavy in the hand, and the fracture was smooth and translucent.

"Is this flint?" I asked curiously.

"This stone is used to light fire. It is used exclusively in the tribe." The tribe visitor carefully showed the stone to me, as if it were a rare treasure on display.

Sure enough, it is flint and steel. Normal flint and steel are all artificially synthesized. They are made of metals in a certain proportion, including iron, magnesium, zinc, rare earths, etc. Flint and steel made of these metal components have high spark temperatures.

It is very convenient to light a fire and can ignite hay directly.

Natural flint and steel are made of ores rich in metal substances. However, due to the low metal content of natural ores, the sparks produced by collision are often not hot enough...

"Can this really be successful?" I don't quite believe it. The temperature of natural flint is so low that it basically can't light this tinder, right?

The tribe visitor nodded, took out a handful of crumb-like stuff from the magical animal skin bag, sprinkled it carefully on top of the ignition pile, and said to me: "That's it."

"What is this?"

"Mushroom fluff, like this. For you."

The man took out another dry and dehydrated mushroom from the bag and showed it to me.

The mushroom looks like a horseshoe, and there are some fine hairs growing on the back of the horseshoe-shaped shell.

I recognized that it was a dry fungus on the trunk of a tree, called horsefoot fungus. The outer shell of the horsefoot fungus was peeled off, and the fungus velvet inside was an excellent fire starter. A spark can make the horsefoot fungus burn. The horsefoot fungus is not only

It is the best fire starter and the best fire retainer.

I was still a little touched in my heart. Although I could eat and drink freely in the town, this visitor made arrangements for me to drink water and light the fire as soon as he came, and gave me the things I needed directly. In the end, he gave me something like this

He gave me some kindling. This kind of mushroom is not available all over the street. To collect enough, I would have to wander around the mountains for several days, right?

Could it be...
Chapter completed!