The tribal witchcraft ritual was divided into four steps from beginning to end.

The tribal women undressed Jennifer and used freshly collected clean river water to wipe her body; this was the first step.

After wiping her clean, the tribal women applied a special reddish-brown powder all over Jennifer's body. This reddish-brown powder had a pungent, fishy smell, which Fatty strongly suspected was made from the blood of some animal. Afterward, they covered Jennifer's private parts with plant leaves and lifted her onto a grass mat on a wooden frame; this was the second step.

After all, Jennifer was a white person and a modern person, with vastly different concepts from the primitive tribe. It would certainly be inappropriate to expose her chest in front of Dodge and the others, so Zoey took two more leaves and covered Jennifer's chest. The tribal women did not stop her.

As night fell, a bonfire was lit in the center of the tribal camp. Jennifer lay on the grass mat on the wooden frame next to the bonfire, surrounded by the people of the tribe and Dodge's team, forming a circle.

The tribal chief attended in full dress. He wore a crown made of antlers on his head, with dense feathers inserted around the crown. He wore a colorful and exaggerated robe, and his face and body were painted with strange patterns in greasepaint. He was barefoot, holding something like a rattle in his left hand and two pieces of wood grain board in his right.

Everyone was ready.

The tribal chief began to clap the wood grain boards together with one hand, making "pa", "pa" sounds, then started to spin the rattle in his hand. Then he began to dance around Jennifer and the bonfire; this was the third step.

The tribal chief danced, chanting "yi yi ya ya" in his mouth, but no one present knew the meaning of those syllables.

The people sitting around the bonfire clapped their hands to the rhythm of the wood grain boards and cheered, as if this was not a witchcraft ritual, but a performance.

Fatty was deeply shocked by this scene. He remembered seeing this scene in his grandfather's village when he was very young.

At that time, he was staying at his grandfather's house during the summer vacation. Er Gou, the brother next door to his grandfather, had been absent-minded and didn't want to eat or drink for a while. His grandmother thought he was possessed by an evil spirit, so she quickly invited a "Great Master" from the next village to see Er Gou.

The Great Master was an old woman in her sixties, with half of her teeth missing, and her entire lips squeezed together, looking extremely awkward.

A old man had just died in Fatty's grandfather's village some time ago, and the Great Master said that Er Gou's situation was related to the death of the old man.

She said that the old man was unwilling to leave, so he attached his soul to the child. Er Gou was possessed by the soul of the old man.

The people in the village really believed the Great Master's statement. The children of the deceased old man even ran to Er Gou's house to kneel down to Er Gou first, and then cried and hugged him, directly confusing Er Gou.

After the process was completed, the Great Master killed a chicken and a fish in Er Gou's yard, drew a circle on the ground with the blood of the two animals, asked Er Gou to sit in the circle, and fed Er Gou a pill.

Then the Great Master danced around Er Gou in a strange and twisted posture. Fatty's grandfather told Fatty that this strange dance was called "Dancing the Great God."

After a while, the Great Master said to Er Gou's grandmother and the family of the deceased old man that the old man's soul had left, and Er Gou was now weak and needed to recover for a while, and promised that Er Gou would return to normal in a few days.

Sure enough, after dancing the Great God, Er Gou slept for two days in a row, and the first thing he did when he woke up was to eat, and then his emotions slowly recovered.

Fatty had a deep impression of this, because he knew that Er Gou was not possessed by an evil spirit at all. When they were playing together during the summer vacation, Er Gou fell in love with a little girl in the next village, and the little girl had to go back to school after the summer vacation without saying goodbye.

Er Gou became lovesick and fell ill with lovesickness.

Why does Fatty remember so clearly? Because he also liked that little girl. After the little girl left, he was also briefly immersed in sadness.

However, Fatty's grandfather saw through this kid's thoughts, killed a chicken for him that night, and then stewed a pot of chicken soup. After drinking the chicken soup, Fatty forgot about the little girl the next day and went to catch frogs with his grandfather's fish basket.

Thinking of this, Fatty suddenly understood one thing. The pill that the Great Master fed Er Gou back then was very likely a sleeping pill. This Great Master was really a good con artist.

…

The tribal chief danced around the bonfire all night, and Fatty felt that the soles of his feet were about to blister. Whether this witchcraft would work or not was another matter, but the tribe's actions definitely showed sincerity.

"So this 'witchcraft' is just dancing the Great God... It's no wonder it doesn't work..."

Fatty complained disappointedly.

Zoey was curious and hurriedly asked Fatty what dancing the Great God was.

Fatty told Zoey about his childhood experience, and Zoey was very disappointed after hearing it.

Both of them thought that the tribal chief's witchcraft performance was unlikely to be of any use to Jennifer.

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The tribal chief finally finished dancing. He stopped, threw one of the wood grain pieces in his hand into the fire, and then pressed the other wood grain piece on Jennifer's forehead, and then chanted spells again.

After doing all this, the tribal chief limped off the stage. After dancing continuously for several hours, anyone's feet would be ruined.

After the chief left, the people in the tribe also left one after another.

Fatty wanted to see how Jennifer was doing and whether there were any signs of improvement, so he got up and walked towards Jennifer.