13.Dragonfly in Childhood

The Chinese New Year is coming.In a few days, well enter into the Dragon Year. Ive never seen a real flying dragon in my life, but I am very familiar with dragonflies.This elegant creature was a source of joy during my childhood.

Before I went to primary school, I didnt go to kindergarten as my grandfather took care of me from the age of three.All day, I played outside my house except for having meals and sleeping.To seize dragonflies was my most important “enterprise” in summer during that period.

When I was four years old, one day I saw many light yellow dragonflies flying round and round in the sky above a piece of grassland,and a desire to catch them suddenly came into my mind.Soon I recognized that it was hard to achieve this goal by myself. So I asked my father to help me.

My father made a catcher，an iron circle with a string bag bound on one end of a bamboo rod. He demonstrated how to seize dragonflies with the catcher.Then he handed it to me.That was one of the only two “tools” (the other was a bike) I received from my father still in my memory.

The moment that I got the tool was a beginning of my long journey to seek dragonflies independently for several years.When I caught the first dragonfly in my life with this catcher, my heart was full of gladness and excitement.The extraordinary and popular type of dragonfly is called Xiaomaihuang as its pale yellow color looks like the mature ears of wheat. Its about three inches long and easier to be seized than other kinds in the same size, such as Mantianhong which is red from head to tail, Jinmaihuang which is golden all over the body, Sibuxiang which is in black color except for the yellow belly. Mantianhong and Jinmaihuang are very beautiful but rare. Although the number of Sibuxiang is larger than the other two types,it is very difficult to catch since it flies in irregular routes and seldom alights on grass or a branch. Some other sorts of dragonflies are bigger and stronger than these smaller ones, about 4.5 inches long.A bigger type is called Jingaoyao which is deep green alternating with light green on its chest and tail. Laoganer and Laozier,the other two types of the bigger dragonflies, have similar light green color except for the belly, one is blue and the other is green. These bigger ones fly faster and are much difficult to be caught. They seldom come out in the daytime and often hover in places such as grassland, pools and puddles　with lots of mosquitoes.

I used the catcher made by my father in one summer. After one year, I thought that it was not convenient to carry and often hurt the tail or wing of the dragonfly caught in the nylon string bag. So in the next summer, I pulled some tall grass, which was about one meter high with extended branches like a big fan to cover the dragonfly instead of manmade tools. It was not easy to seize the flying dragonfly even the ordinary type by using this natural tool. However, it was easy to catch the dragonfly rested on the grass, especially when several dragonflies stayed on one branch of grass or near each other. Since this natural catcher was made of grass, I didnt have to carry it with me. I usually went on a tour of several places in which dragonflies were often found at daytime. When I saw many dragonflies and there was good chance to catch some, I would make a grass tool to seize them for a while. If I saw some dragonflies staying on the grass and aggregating in a small place, I would walk slowly to that area with a grass fan.

Some dragonflies alighted on the branches of trees about one and half meter above the ground. It was difficult to catch them with a bunch of grass. So I walked to the tree slowly in silence with empty hands. When I was close enough to touch the dragonfly, I stopped behind it and raised my hand inch by inch to get close to it.The dragonfly often suddenly flied away when I approached to it,sometimes even just before I touched it. I first caught an alighted dragonfly by using five fingers like an eagle catches a rabbit with its claws.Many days later, I caught a staying dragonfly only with my thumb and forefinger from the branch. This process needed patience and determination.I usually got close to the dragonfly slowly and stretched my right arm to approach it. When my forefinger was under the dragonflys wing and my thumb just above its wing, I held my breath and quickly clipped its wing with the two fingers.

The large dragonfly attracted me very much, but it seldom alighted on any branch and flied very fast. In the later summer, I learned an interesting method　from an elder boy to catch the big one.After dinner,if it was not dark outside, I went out with a piece of thread getting from my mothers needlework box in my pocket.On the way to the grassland where many dragonflies appeared at daytime, I would find a couple of small dragonflies, Xiaomaihuang, staying on the branches of trees and I could easily “clip” two or three of them.Then I used one part of the thread to tie the dragonflies around their chests between two wings and the other part of the thread was bound to one end of a short wood stick which was about one foot long. Thus, I could hold the other end of the stick to control the flying of the dragonfly. At dusk, the sun set down, but countless mosquitoes hovering above the grass could be easily seen.Some big dragonflies, Laoganer and Laozier, flied fast just near the grass. When I saw a large dragonfly flying in front of me, I let the small dragonfly controlled by my right hand fly in front of the big one. Usually, after this scene repeated several times, I would suddenly felt my right hand obviously heavier.Then I used my left hand to touch the thread from the top of short stick to the small dragonfly quickly and covered with it the big dragonfly, which was biting the small one.