Lame's craftsmanship was impeccable. By now, Han Cheng had fully cultivated him with all kinds of strange and unusual methods.
The cradle project was completed very quickly. Han Cheng had just explained it to him on the first day, and the finished product was delivered by the second day.
The workmanship wasn’t as refined as that in later generations, but it was significantly better than Han Cheng’s makeshift frame tied with a board.
The cradle Lame crafted had a wooden box as the main body, measuring 80 centimeters long, 40 centimeters wide, and 40 centimeters deep.
The ends of the wooden box were supported underneath with sturdy tree vines, which were then looped upward and tied to a horizontal wooden stick.
The tying wasn’t rigid; loops were left to allow the "wooden box" beneath to sway gently.
The "wooden box" length was aligned horizontally with the wooden stick, allowing it to swing side-to-side.
Han Cheng tried rocking it and found it quite smooth.
Giving Lame a thumbs-up, Han Cheng padded the small "wooden box" with soft materials and gently placed Little Pea inside. She was still adjusting to life and often cried while tilting her head to the left.
Han Cheng patiently wiped it away with some coarse cloth and gently rocked the cradle by hand.
Perhaps finding it comforting, Little Pea soon stopped crying with her head slightly tilted to the left on the padded support. She lay there staring upward with dry, tearless eyes.
Seeing the cradle’s effectiveness, Han Cheng smiled.
Not bad. It seems this invention could be promoted within the tribe.
After rocking Little Pea for a while, Han Cheng moved the cradle’s frame to the edge of the heated bed and handed Bai Xue a stick over a meter long.
Of course, this wasn’t for hitting the baby. It was for nudging the cradle a few times when Little Pea cried.
After finishing these arrangements, Han Cheng discussed promoting the cradle with the shaman. However, the shaman shook his head.
The cradle worked well for soothing children, but he didn’t see much value in promoting it within the tribe.
First, he thought it was too time-consuming to make. Second, he believed it was customary for children to cry occasionally and didn’t see the need for constant soothing. Third, even with additional cradles, the number of caregivers wouldn’t decrease...
The shaman’s response surprised Han Cheng. After listening, he realized the shaman’s reasoning and couldn’t help but laugh. Couldn’t reduce caregivers?
That’s because you haven’t yet seen multiple cradles rocking together. Once you witness that, you’ll change your mind.
Thinking this, Han Cheng felt a sense of amusement as he relished "outsmarting" the primitives.
"Just wait and see," Han Cheng said to the shaman with a smile.
Han Cheng’s confident tone made the previously resolute shaman waver.
After all, over the years, he had witnessed many miracles by the Divine Child.
Could this seemingly unremarkable cradle also have uses beyond his understanding, like the other things the Divine Child had created?
The shaman pondered this while watching Bai Xue poke the cradle to rock it occasionally.
After a while, the second-in-command and self-proclaimed oracle of the Green Sparrow tribe completely abandoned his dignity and sided with Han Cheng.
Although he still hadn’t figured out other potential uses for the cradle, Han Cheng picked up a tree branch and began sketching on the ground while explaining his ideas about cradles to Lame.
Curious and idle, the shaman squatted nearby to listen. Gradually, his eyes began to light up...
Rows of wooden frames, each supporting a large cradle, were arranged in a childcare room specifically designated by the Green Sparrow Tribe.
These cradles were oversized, each measuring 1.6 meters long—large enough to accommodate an adult.
Inside each cradle, two horizontal bars divided the interior into three compartments, turning one cradle into three.
The cradles were padded with soft materials like millet stalks and coarse cloth, and small infants lay inside them.
A female tribeswoman sat in the room. On her left and right were two cradle frames, each connected by three rods, securely linking the frames together.
At the center of the cradle closest to her, a 40-centimeter rod was firmly fixed.
The woman sat there, holding one rod in each hand, gently pushing them side to side.
Four large cradles swayed in unison, and the infants inside either lay quietly, stretched their chubby hands to grasp the sunlight filtering through the gaps, or slept peacefully. There was minimal crying.
In other words, one person sitting there could use this modified cradle system to soothe twelve babies simultaneously.
With the growth of the Green Sparrow Tribe’s population and improved living conditions—and in the absence of any birth control measures—the number of newborns in the tribe steadily increased each year.
Take this year, for example. Even before summer had fully ended, the tribe had already welcomed 23 newborns. Pregnant women with rounded bellies could still be seen everywhere. By the time the New Year arrived, it wouldn’t be surprising if the number of newborns reached 50.
With more babies being born, naturally, the task of caring for them also increased.
Though the tribe’s methods for soothing children were far from the meticulousness of later generations and were quite rough in comparison, it still required a significant amount of manpower.
Particularly for newborns just a few months old who couldn’t yet walk, the time and effort needed to care for them were even greater.
Even with the most basic methods, one adult could only manage to soothe three babies at most.
However, one person could soothe twelve babies with the cradle system. If the materials for the cradles were further improved to make them easier to rock, and if another large cradle were added, it wouldn’t be impossible for one person to manage 18 babies at once.
Of course, soothing babies wasn’t just about rocking the cradle. Feeding, cleaning, and comforting fussy babies still required additional personnel.
Nevertheless, compared to the previous methods, this system significantly reduced the manpower needed.
Moreover, compared to the overly rough child-rearing methods of the past, children now receive much better care.
The shaman stood at the room doorway, his face beaming with satisfaction.
Under the premise of speed and efficiency, he was naturally happy to see the tribe’s children receiving better care.
Once again, he found himself awed by the wisdom of the Divine Child.
Although he had already been awed countless times before.
When slightly expanded upon by the Divine Child, what seemed like simple, mundane ideas always yielded surprising results...