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[wenzili]

When I was a little boy, our economic condition was very poor and our parents were always worrying about where the next meal was coming from. They cherished and begrudged every penny. Therefore, no one in our town had so lavish an idea as to buy a toy for his or her child.

However, curiosity and playing with toys were our born nature as children, no matter whether we were rich or poor.

Therefore, we had to turn to nature for our toys instead of pestering our parents. Of course, our various toys were not the dolls from department stores but some brilliant and exquisite insects from nearby woods.

1) Cicada Capturing

At that time, Dong Shan Mountain seemed to be much higher, because there were dozens of maples hundreds of years old growing on its top. Their trunks were so huge that even several children hand in hand could not embrace them. With their ever flourishing and vigorous leaves and branches, the trees enhanced Dong Shan�s height by more than 30 or 40 meters.

In the early morning or immediately after a thunderstorm in summer, the trees' bark exuded some amber and sticky syrup with a pleasing smell.
The syrup was most welcome to us as children.
Every morning, we dashed to the top and collected the syrup with an empty inkbottle, for two major reasons.

One was for medical use.
When a child suffered a boil, syrup was the best herbal prescription: Drop some syrup on a maple leaf; put it on the affected part, and, after a few days, the lump would disappear without any scar left.

The second function was for cicada capturing.
The cicada is known as �Beewoolee� in our local dialect. It was one of our most popular toys. Held in a child�s palm or tired by a length of thread, �Beewoo , Beewoo��� it would constantly sing and fly. Its dark and shining body, covered by two thin and transparent wings like a black beauty after her bath, always encouraged our childhood�s surging imagination.
Therefore, to capture a cicada, the wonderful free toy, was our childhood dream and we spared no effort.

Cicada was a most alert insect. It always perched on the top of the tree. At any sign of disturbance or trouble, it would fly away immediately.
Therefore, after a hard journey, when we managed to reach a cicada, we would certainly be disappointed by its just barely escaping.
However, adhesion proved to be a most effective way of cicada hunting. First, put some syrup on the top of a bamboo pole, approach a singing cicada, and after some miserable fluttering, the optimistic angel was imprisoned in a naughty boy�s hand soon.
As if it were a royal fete-day, we would be shouting and gamboling all the way back to celebrate this significant achievement.

Since the syrup on Dong Shan Mountain was very limited, we had to find a substitute.

The bark of the willow was the best stuff for making another glue. We sometimes went to the bank of Shi Hu Lake and peeled off a piece of willow bark, then, mashed it down and washed it in the water. The bark residue washed away and a clot of glue was left. This was the exactly what we wanted.

(To be continued)

For more reference, Pls. refer to my blog: http://wenzili.my.24en.com
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