Chapter 17 The fifth animal that grows on the tree

October 29, 2008 at 22:42 Omar Khayyam (OmarKhayyam, about 1048-1131), one of the greatest scholars in Persian history.He is proficient in astronomy and mathematics, and is well aware of religious laws. He can write classics from beginning to end with his left hand, and at the same time write them backwards with his right hand.There is evidence that he traveled to China at least three times.But we know very little about his experiences in China.The following is found in his report to King Ansar Ma'ali: In central and northern China, a strange tree can be seen everywhere.The most unusual thing about these trees is that they are not stationary.

This kind of tree is not tall, and it can only grow to the height of a person's chest.Every spring, flowers bloom on the tree.The flowers are pale pink, small, odorless, and unattractive in shape.Until this time, they were indistinguishable from other plants.After the flowers fell, the tree bore fruit.At first, it was only as big as a finger, and it was covered with a hard shell. When you tap it with your finger, it will make a popping sound.When the fruit grows to the size of a fist, the shell splits open.A sheep crawled out of the fruit and hung upside down from the tree. Indeed.Sheep did grow on that tree.Each has a fat tail and four legs, connected by an umbilical cord to the mother of the sheep and the tree.The sheep's wool is white, curled and very fluffy.When this kind of sheep fruit grows to a certain extent, it will open its mouth and call.Their calls are no different from real sheep.

The purpose of growing this plant is not to obtain meat.What the Chinese want is the wool from the sheep fruit.Like real wool, these white, uniform, slender hairs can be spun into threads.Cultivating this kind of plant is also very simple. Cut off any part of the sheep fruit, such as meat, horns or bones, bury it in the ground, and then water it with sheep blood, and new seedlings of the sheep tree will soon grow.It is precisely because of this that the distribution of sheep trees in China is extremely common.The Chinese all wear clothes made of wool fruit. In order to protect this exotic cash crop, after the sheep grow out of the fruit, the farmers who plant these sheep trees for a living must wait around them all day long with sticks and hoes.Otherwise, wolves and wild dogs from nearby areas will rush over and eat up the sheep growing on the trees.Some of them even said they had eaten the flesh of dead sheep fruit.The meat is very fragrant and sweet, but it has a slight smell of sheep.

The legend of the delicacy of sheep pulp gradually spread and attracted the attention of some nobles.Through abnormal channels, they purchased the meat of some sheep fruit that had been killed by wild beasts from farmers.Although the flesh had begun to rot, milky white maggots burrowed through the muscle fibers.But that doesn't detract from the deliciousness of the sheep's flesh in the slightest.As a result, some nobles began to secretly slaughter sheep for meat, falsely claiming that wolves had attacked their plantations. Dangerous rumors had finally reached the court.The emperor of China could not resist the temptation from the upper abdomen.With the permission of the fortune teller, he secretly tasted the smell of sheep flesh.This sweet and mellow taste quickly occupied all the emperor's desires.Since then, he has had seven sheep-related dreams every night.After waking up the next day, he replayed these dreams backwards from beginning to end.After seven days in a row, the emperor could not wait to order the addition of a sheep pattern to the imperial coat of arms.

Just when he was about to sign an order to officially make sheep fruit the first food on the royal menu, the shadow of his ancestors appeared on the emperor's head.He woke up suddenly.A thousand years ago, his ancestors discovered sheep trees in the wild and successfully introduced them.From this foundation, the family built the greatest empire in the world.Now the sheep fruit has become a symbol of the country's prosperity, and all the subjects can get clothes to cover their bodies depending on it.Once sheep fruit was used as food, the foundation of the empire was shaken.Thinking of this, the emperor stopped writing, closed his eyes and recalled his wonderful dream.

This is what distinguishes the emperor from ordinary nobles.He will not be easily swayed by his own desires.However, the temptation of sheep fruit did not disappear, and continued to invade the emperor's sleep.In order to prevent himself from finally succumbing to it, the emperor ordered that all sheep trees in the territory be cut down and burned into charcoal.Although there was still an aftertaste of meat on the charcoal, the emperor still felt that he had finally overcome his wrong decision.