I grew up in the countryside, and I was born and raised in the countryside. Let me answer, there was no toilet paper in the countryside before, how did everyone wipe their butts after going to the toilet?
As for rural people, as I said earlier, they are natives. So what is the most important thing to lack in the countryside? Of course, it is the soil, and the rural people rely on the soil for food, farming, and building houses. Everything is inseparable from soil, so, guess how everyone wipes their butts after going to the toilet? Yes, you guessed it very correctly, it was solved with soil.
In the countryside, their toilets are rudimentary, just the kind of earthen pits. Digging a random pit in the ground is a toilet. Most families will pull a large pile of dirt next to the dirt pit. There must be lumps in the soil. Before people go to the toilet, pick up a lump or two in the mound. After going to the toilet, wipe your butt with a lump of dirt and you're done.
Many people may think that this method is too unhygienic. However, rural people never get sick in this way. This is because the soil they use is exposed to the sun all year round and is sterilized by high temperatures. There can't be any chemical content in it. So it doesn't carry any germs. Unlike people in the city, who use seemingly very clean paper all year round, but often get sick. The older generation in the countryside believe that the soil exposed to the sun has the effect of disinfection, so if the children are red and swollen on the buttocks or red and swollen under the neck, they usually use some fine soil that has been exposed to the sun to disinfect, and the effect is very good.
In addition to the above methods, if the conditions at home are slightly better, you can also use old newspapers, branches, notebooks, etc. However, when the conditions are really bad, you can also use corn husks, etc., which are all natural things anyway, and they are very healthy after use.
The above is how rural people used to solve the problem when they went to the toilet without toilet paper. If you're in the countryside right now, can you accept it? Why?