Part 2 (1/2)
These several structures formed an oblong square that surrounded a large yard, closed up at night with a ma.s.sive gate. On the outside, a strong palisade, raised on the brow of a deep ditch, enclosed the system of buildings, leaving between it and them an alley about four feet wide.
Two large and ferocious war mastiffs were let loose during the night in the vacant s.p.a.ce. The palisade had an exterior door that corresponded with an interior one. All were locked at night.
The number of men, women and children--all more or less near relatives of Joel--who cultivated fields in common with him, was considerable.
These lodged in the houses attached to the princ.i.p.al building, where they met at noon and in the evening to take their joint meals.
Other homesteads, similarly constructed and occupied by numerous families who cultivated lands in common, lay scattered here and there over the landscape and composed the _ligniez_, or tribe of Karnak, of which Joel was chosen chief.
Upon his entrance in the yard of his homestead, Joel was received with the caresses of his old war dog Deber-Trud, an animal of an iron grey color streaked with black, an enormous head, blood-shot eyes, and of such a high stature that in standing up to caress his master he placed his front paws upon Joel's shoulders. He was a dog of such boldness that he once fought a monstrous bear of the mountains of Arres, and killed him. As to his war qualities, Deber-Trud would have been worthy of figuring with the war pack of Bithert, the Gallic chieftain who at sight of a small hostile troop said disdainfully: ”They are not enough for a meal for my dogs.”
As Deber-Trud looked over and smelled the traveler with a doubtful air, Joel said to the animal: ”Do you not see he is a guest whom I bring home?”
As if he understood the words, Deber-Trud ceased showing any uneasiness about the stranger, and gamboled clumsily ahead of his master into the house. The house was part.i.tioned into three sections of unequal size.
The two smaller ones, separated from each other and from the main hall by oaken panels, were destined, one for Joel and his wife, the other for Hena, their daughter, when she came to visit the family. The vast hall between the two served as a dining-room, and in it were performed the noon and evening in-door labors.
When the stranger entered the hall, a large fire of beech wood, enlivened with dry brush wood and seaweed burned in the hearth, and with its brilliancy rendered superfluous the light of a handsome lamp of burnished copper that hung from three chains of the same metal. The lamp was a present from Mikael the armorer.
Two whole sheep, impaled in long iron spits broiled before the hearth, while salmon and other sea fish boiled in a large pewter pot filled with water, seasoned with vinegar, salt and caraway.
The panels were ornamented with heads of wolves, boars, cerfs and of two wild bulls called _urok_, an animal that began to be rare in the region; beside them hung hunting weapons, such as bows, arrows and slings, and weapons of war, such as the _sparr_ and the _matag_, axes, sabres of copper, bucklers of wood covered with the tough skin of seals, and long lances with iron heads, sharpened and barbed and provided with little bra.s.s bells, intended to notify the enemy from afar that the Gallic warrior approached, seeing that the latter disdains ambuscades, and loves to fight in the open. There were also fis.h.i.+ng nets and harpoons to harpoon the salmon in the shallows when the tide goes out.
To the right of the main door stood a kind of altar, consisting of a block of granite, surmounted and covered by large oak branches freshly cut. A little copper bowl lay on the stone in which seven twigs of mistletoe stood. From above, on the wall, the following inscription looked down:
Abundance and Heaven Are for the Just and the Pure.
He is Pure and Holy Who Performs Celestial Works and Pure.
When Joel stepped into the house, he approached the copper basin in which stood the seven branches of mistletoe and reverently put his lips to each. His guest followed his example, and then both walked towards the hearth.
At the hearth was Mamm' Margarid, Joel's wife, with a distaff. She was tall of stature, and wore a short, sleeveless tunic of brown wool over a long robe of grey with narrow sleeves, both tunic and robe being fastened around her waist with her ap.r.o.n string. A white cap, cut square, left exposed her grey hair, that parted over her forehead. Like many other women of her kin, she wore a coral necklace round her neck, bracelets inwrought with garnets and other trinkets of gold and silver fas.h.i.+oned at Autun.
Around Mamm' Margarid played the children of Guilhern and several other of her kin, while their young mothers busied themselves preparing supper.
”Margarid,” said Joel to his wife, ”I bring a guest to you.”
”He is welcome,” answered the woman without stopping to spin. ”The G.o.ds send us a guest, our hearth is his own. The eve of my daughter's birth is propitious.”
”May your children when they travel, be received as I am by you,”
answered the stranger respectfully.
”But you do not yet know what kind of a guest the G.o.ds have sent us, Margarid,” rejoined Joel; ”such a guest as one would request of Ogmi for the long autumn and winter nights; a guest who in the course of his travels has seen so many curious things and wonderful that a hundred evenings would not be too many to listen to his marvelous stories.”
Hardly had Joel p.r.o.nounced these words when, from Mamm' Margarid and the young mothers down to the little boys and girls, all looked at the stranger with the greed of curiosity, expectant of the marvelous stories he was to tell.
”Are we to have supper soon, Margarid?” asked Joel. ”Our guest is probably as hungry as myself; I am hungry as a wolf.”
”The folk have just gone out to fill the racks of the cattle,” answered Margarid; ”they will be back shortly. If our guest is willing we shall be pleased of his company at supper.”
”I thank the wife of Joel, and shall wait,” said the unknown.
”And while waiting,” remarked Joel, ”you can tell us a story--”