Mary's Nineteenth Century

Westminster Aquarium sells a rabbit's left foot as a good luck talisman, but being a serious aquarium, the souvenir shop doesn't have any weird faux-rabbit ear ornaments.

Mary and Mycroft looked at each other, and they both saw a trace of regret in each other's eyes, so they could only turn their attention back to the exhibition itself.There is still an hour and a half before the opening of the skeleton exhibition hall. Before that, go to enjoy the fish in the aquarium.

This week's live fish section has some new faces.

In a very large tank, a group of fish that live in groups looks a bit fierce, as you can see from their sharp teeth.

The nameplate on one side marked the origin of the fish school: piranha from South America.

Across the water tank, tourists don't have to fear the siege of piranhas at all.

Even if the glass is broken, there is nothing to fear, this is an aquarium, and the piranhas will die if there is not enough water to survive.

Wave after wave of tourists looked at the piranhas curiously against the glass, and some people complained and regretted.

"Why is there no feeding show until five o'clock in the afternoon? At that time, I'm going to see the skeleton."

"It says in the ad that these little guys can tear up a cow. I don't know if it's true or not?"

"It's a pity that a glass cover is added, otherwise I want to throw in the fish cakes I bought at noon to see if they will grab the food."

Mycroft noticed that the piranha's large tank was placed on a 1.5-meter iron shelf.

This may be good news.Under normal circumstances, no one will break the glass top cover because of a fall, and fall into the water tank and be eaten up.

"Mr. Minton, I'm a little curious about the snorkeling you proposed yesterday."

Mycroft saw the freshwater piranhas and thought of the dangerous animals in the sea. "Ever, did you encounter those deadly sea creatures in the process of learning to dive?"

"Of course, there are many deadly creatures, such as sharks, sea snakes, octopuses, jellyfish and cone snails, etc."

Mary reported a series of threatening creatures in one breath, "Although most of them will not take the initiative to attack humans under normal circumstances, you should be well aware that accidents happen from time to time. However, please rest assured. If you want to Go diving together, I will choose waters with a safety factor of 99%.”

Mary thinks she knows how to measure, especially in this era where equipment is not advanced enough, she will take more safety measures.Then she asked with a smile, "Mr. Holmes, are you afraid?"

Mycroft shook his head resolutely. Now, if the two of them were together, what would he be afraid of.

Suddenly, he approached Mr. Minton's ear and said, "I understand the truth: the more dangerous, the more charming, the more attractive you are. You have taught this by example."

What did precepts and deeds teach?

Is it a demonstration of not being afraid of dangerous seas, or is it obviously very calm but inevitably emotional?

Mary cast a deep glance at Mycroft, who had returned to his serious fish-watching mode.

Very good, who did you learn this kind of puns and expression management from?

Perhaps there is a saying that can explain it clearly, "The one who is close to vermilion is red, and the one who is close to ink is black".

Speaking of the aquarium, there are eye-stimulating piranhas in front, and other fish, no matter how colorful they are, don't attract too much discussion.

Visitors are looking forward to the opening of the skeleton exhibition hall at [-] o'clock in the afternoon, and are more interested in the strange bones of the dead.

The difference is that Mary is not very interested in the bones of the deceased.

Because I more or less understand the origin of the exhibits, visiting those bones is equivalent to watching one killing after another full of interests.

15:00

The bell rang, and the door to the skeleton exhibition hall opened.

The crowd poured in excitedly, and saw human skeletons in rows of glass display cases.

Men, women and children, skeletons of various heights and shapes, mostly adult males.But there are also some apparently undersized skeletons from babies who have just died.

There are many markings on the sides of the display rack, explaining where the skeletons came from.

Mycroft glanced at it. There were not only skeletons in the exhibition hall, but also a special category - shrunken human heads. ①

As the name suggests, an ordinary human head is reduced to keep the proportion of human facial features, making it easy to store for a long time.

Shrinking human heads was originally a primitive custom of some tribes in South America when disposing of corpses, but it changed in the [-]th century.

Western adventurers paid for dried shrunken heads, treating them as exotic collectibles.It is conceivable that there will be more killings if there is business, and the conflicts between various indigenous tribes will soar rapidly, just for more money.

Mycroft thinks that this kind of trade should be banned, and he doesn't appreciate it at all, but it is helpless that the business that has shrunk in recent years has become more and more popular.

Just the tourists around have heard several people asking the staff whether these exhibits can be sold to the outside world.

Mycroft glanced at the showcase, and discovered some little secrets with sharp eyes.Since there are profits to be made, it is not surprising that counterfeit products appear.

He lowered his voice and said, "Mr. Minton, the distribution of human heads here is very regular. The ending numbers of everything are 1, 5, and 7. They are imitations of the heads of other animals, such as the heads of sloths and monkeys."

Non-professionals cannot see the difference.

"I'm afraid it's more than that. The heads with tail numbers 2, 6, and 8 have skin pores that don't resemble human skin, but goat skin."

What Mary meant was that those heads were synthetic imitations, while the real shrunken heads accounted for less than half of the exhibits.

From a certain point of view, selling imitations is also good, at least a few people will die less.

However, such an exhibition full of fakes also shows one thing. It is unlikely to find clues about the "Scarab Society" here.

The two lacked interest, but they still carefully observed each exhibit in the skeleton exhibition hall one by one.

After dinner, we moved to the performance hall at [-] o'clock in the evening, and the stage play "A Day in the Jungle Natives" was staged as scheduled.

Unlike ordinary performances, the actors in this show are obviously Native Americans at a glance.

They read the obscure local language and started the performance in front of the jungle-patterned curtain, starting with the early morning wash and breakfast.

The soundtrack uses local instruments, and the tune is strange and mysterious.

The plot is not exciting, it is the first time to watch it fresh.

Interspersed with behind-the-scenes English explanations from time to time, such as explaining how the indigenous people make pottery, such as explaining how they cook food.

On the stage, two groups of hostile camps with sharp weapons soon appeared again, and the war was coming as soon as it was said.The bright red liquid splashed, and the actors were stabbed and fell down one by one.

As the conflict became more intense, the white mist rose, as if creating a feeling of gunpowder.

Mary and Mycroft couldn't take their eyes off the VIP seats at the best viewing distance.

The two of them didn't like this kind of plot at all. The reason why they watched it seriously was that their past experience made them have a secret worry-don't make a fake show for real!

I saw the butcher knife swung down.Human heads rolled down from the white mist and hit the stage with a dull sound.For a moment, everyone in the performance hall held their breath, for fear that after the white mist cleared, there would be corpses floating all over the stage.

Fortunately, it was a false alarm.

In the performance hall, there was no real smell of blood, but a sweet smell.The so-called human blood should be a sugary red pigment liquid, and all the human heads are fake props.

After the fog cleared, the scene changed.

The severed head was not exposed to the wilderness, but was made into a shrunken human head.The production process was blurred, probably to prevent competing counterparts with sales heads in the audience.

At the end of the day, the grand banquet begins.

People gather around the bonfire not only to celebrate, but also to perform a mysterious ceremony.Through the sacrifice, absorb the power from the shrunken human head.

That's why the original intention of making shrunken heads is not to make money, let alone the head itself, but to obtain the mysterious power hidden in the head.

Indigenous people, such as the Shura, believe that there is a certain power in the human head.

This kind of power can be used by living people. For example, women in the tribe can grow crops better if they gain divine power.

The reason sounds simple.

It makes a series of horror processes such as beheading, head making, and sacrifice a little less bloody.

The repertoire has also come to an end, just listen to the dubbing commentary and end with a paragraph:

"The human body is mysterious, and the head is the most mysterious. Do you believe that there is some kind of invisible and intangible power in the head?"

When the curtain fell, the cannibal content in the advertisement page did not appear in the entire self-written screenplay.

Sure enough, anyone who believes in advertising is a fool.They all use blogger eyeballs to solicit business.

Some viewers also raised doubts, but the person in charge Moulton responded that the self-written script was restoring the real life of the aboriginal people.

This time the referenced tribes do not have such customs, and when they encounter tribes with related cannibalistic customs in the future, they will be invited to do a second performance.

Listen, this is really business-minded, and the series is all booked.

Most of the spectators left the venue unsatisfied.

Mary felt even more disappointed. What's the point of writing a screenplay like this?Isn't it a buying and quitting show?

The core of the shrunken human head lies in the mysterious power. The local tribes don't value the human head itself, so they will sell the human head without hesitation after the sacrificial ceremony.

Now that the shrunken human heads sold outside have lost their mysterious power, why do those people still buy one?The hobbies of some collectors are really incomprehensible.

On the way home, Mary silently made a brief summary of today's exhibition.

On June [-], nothing happened.Special exhibit at Westminster Aquarium, overall rating boring.If I have to give a full score, it is that the people who watched the exhibition together are very satisfactory.

Mycroft noticed that the mood of the people around him was not high, so he calmed down the atmosphere in a matter-of-fact manner.

"Sometimes, it's a good thing that there is no harvest. There is no on-stage shaming, no sudden murders and victims. It's not a bad weekend. We were just deceived a little bit by the commercials."

"You are right."

Mary said with a smile as she recalled an old incident, "Actually, not all advertisements are fake. It seemed like a fantasy at the time."

What is the ad?

Mary smiled without saying a word, said good night, and went home first.

In the night wind, Mycroft laughed when he thought of anything.

Going home and entering the study, he took out the notebook in the locked drawer, which contained a leaflet, which was an advertisement for Britney Spears' Rainbow House in September 1869.

I saw the once disapproving advertisement printed on the above: "Meet the rainbow, meet sweetness.Come to a can of Britney Candy, and you will meet beautiful love here! 』

From 1869 to 1873, who would have imagined how magical fate is.

Mycroft also put the ticket stubs for today's skeleton exhibition in his notebook.

Notes: A boring day at the Westminster Aquarium finally turned into fun with Mr Minton.

June [-] passed without incident.

On Monday, June [-]rd, the aquarium will be open as usual.

The exhibition of skeletons is still going on, with another week to go after its opening weekend in London.

7:49 am.

The owner of Tanner took a carload of rabbit left foot pendants to the aquarium to restock. Yesterday's sales of lucky rabbit feet were very good.

Just passed through the staff passage, but heard a scream from inside! "Ah! Not good! Mr. Moulton has been eaten by a piranha!"