A GALLIC HOMESTEAD.
Like all other rural homes, Joel's was spacious and round of shape. The
walls consisted of two rows of hurdles, the space between which was
filled with a mixture of beaten clay and straw; the inside and outside
of the thick wall was plastered over with a layer of fine and fattish
earth, which, when dry, was hard as sandstone. The roofing was large and
projecting. It consisted of oaken joists joined together and covered
with a layer of seaweed laid so thick that it was proof against water.
On either side of the house stood the barns destined for the storage of
the harvest, and also for the stables, the sheepfolds, the kennels, the
storerooms and the washrooms.
These several structures formed an oblong square that surrounded a large
yard, closed up at night with a massive 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 space. 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 principal 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 partitioned 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
brass 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 fishing 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 apron 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
fashioned 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 gods
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 gods 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 pronounced 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--"
But the traveler interrupted his host and said smiling:
"Friend, as one cup serves for all, so does the same story serve for
all.... The cup will shortly circulate from lip to lip, and the story
from ear to ear.... But now tell me, what is that brass belt for that I
see hanging yonder?"
"Have you not also in your country the belt of agility?"
"Explain yourself, Joel."
"Here, with us, at every new moon, the lads of each tribe come to the
chief and try on the belt, in order to prove that their girth has not
broadened with self-indulgence, and that they have preserved themselves
agile and nimble. Those who cannot hitch the belt around themselves, are
hissed, are pointed at with derision, and must pay a fine. Accordingly,
all see to their stomachs lest they come to look like a leathern bottle
on two skittles."
"A good custom. I regret it fell into disuse in my province. And what is
the purpose of that big old trunk? It is of precious wood and seems to
have seen many years."
"Very many. That is the family trunk of triumph," answered Joel opening
the trunk, in which the stranger saw many whitened skulls. One of them,
sawn in two, was mounted on a brass foot like a cup.
"These are, no doubt, the heads of enemies who have been killed by your
fathers, friend Joel? With us this sort of family charnel houses has
long been abandoned."
"With us also. I preserve these heads only out of respect for my
ancestors. Since more than two hundred years, the prisoners of war are
no longer mutilated. The habit existed in the days of the kings whom
Ritha-Gaur shaved of their hair, as you mentioned before, to make
himself a blouse out of their beards. Those were gay days of barbarism,
were those days of royalty. I heard my grandfather Kirio say that even
as late as in the days of his father, Tiras, the men who went to war
returned to their tribes carrying the heads of their enemies stuck to
the points of their lances, or trailed by the hair from the
breast-plates of their horses. They were then nailed to the doors of the
houses for trophies, just as you see yonder on the wall the heads of
wild animals."
"With us, in olden days, friend Joel, these trophies were also
preserved, but preserved in cedar oil when they were the heads of a
hostile chieftain."
"By Hesus! Cedar oil!... What magnificence!" exclaimed Joel smiling.
"That is the way our wives reason: 'for good fish, good sauce.'"
"These relics were with us, as with you, the book from which the young
Gaul learned of the exploits of his fathers. Often did the families of
the vanquished offer to ransom these spoils; but to relinquish for money
a head conquered by oneself or an ancestor was looked upon as an
unpardonable crime of avarice and impiousness. I say with you, those
barbarous customs passed away with royalty, and with them the days when
our ancestors painted their bodies blue and scarlet, and dyed their hair
and beard with lime water to impart to them a copper-red hue."
"Without wronging their memory, friend guest, our ancestors must have
been unpleasant beings to look upon, and must have resembled the
frightful red and blue dragons that ornament the prows of the vessels of
those savage pirates of the North that my son Albinik the sailor and his
lovely wife Meroe have told us some curious tales about. But here are
our men back from the stables; we shall not have to wait much longer for
supper. I see Margarid unspitting the lambs. You shall taste them,
friend, and see what a fine taste the salt meadows on which they browse
impart to their flesh."
All the men of the family of Joel who entered the hall wore, like him, a
sleeveless blouse of coarse wool, through which the sleeves of their
jackets or white shirts were passed. Their breeches reached down to
their ankles; and they were shod with low slippers. Several of these
laborers, just in from the fields, wore over their shoulders a cloak of
sheep-skin, which they immediately took off. All wore woolen caps, long
hair cut round, and bushy beards. The last two to enter held each other
by the arm; they were especially handsome and robust.
"Friend Joel," inquired the stranger, "who are those two young fellows?
The statues of the heathen god Mars are not better shaped, nor have so
valiant an aspect."
"They are two relatives of mine; two cousins, Julyan and Armel. They
love each other like brothers.... Quite recently an enraged bull rushed
at Armel and Julyan saved Armel at the peril of his own life. Thanks to
Hesus we are not now in times of war. But should it be necessary to take
up arms, Julyan and Armel have taken 'the pledge of brotherhood'.... But
supper is ready.... Come, yours is the seat of honor."
Joel and the unknown guest drew near the table. It was round and raised
somewhat above the floor which was covered with fresh straw. All around
the table were seats bolstered with fragrant grass. The two broiled
muttons, now quartered, were served up in large platters of beechwood,
white as ivory. There were also large pieces of salted pork and a smoked
ham of wild boar. The fish remained in the large pot that they had been
boiled in.
At the place where Joel, the head of the family, took his seat, stood a
huge cup of plated copper that even two men could not have drained. It
was before that cup, which marked the place of honor, that the stranger
was placed with Joel at his left and Mamm' Margarid at his right.
The old men, the young girls and the children then ranked themselves
around the table. The grown up and the young men sat down behind these
in a second row, from which they rose from time to time to perform some
service, or, every time that, passing from hand to hand, beginning with
the stranger, the large cup was empty, to fill it from a barrel of
hydromel, that was placed at a corner of the hall. Furnished with a
piece of barley or wheat bread, everyone received or took a slice of
broiled or salted meat, which he cut up with his knife, or into which he
bit freely without the help of knife.
The old war-dog Deber-Trud, enjoying the privileges of his age and long
years of service, lay at the feet of Joel, who did not forget his
faithful servitor.
Towards the end of the meal, Joel having carved the wild boar ham,
detached the hoof, and following an ancient custom, said to his young
relative Armel, handing it to him:
"To you, Armel, belongs the bravest part! To you, the vanquisher in last
evening's fight!"
At the moment when, proud of being pronounced the bravest in the
presence of the stranger, Armel was stretching out his hand to take the
wild boar's hoof that Joel presented to him, an exceptionally short man
in the family, nicknamed "Stumpy" by reason of his small stature,
observed aloud:
"Armel won in yesterday's fight because he was not fighting with Julyan.
Two bullocks of equal strength avoid and fear each other, and do not
lock horns."
Feeling humiliated at hearing it said of them, and before a stranger,
that they did not fight together because they were mutually afraid of
each other, Julyan and Armel grew red in the face.
With sparkling eyes, Julyan cried: "If I did not fight with Armel it was
because someone else took my place; but Julyan fears Armel as little as
Armel fears Julyan; and if you were but one inch taller, Stumpy, I would
show you on the spot that, beginning with you, I fear nobody--not even
my good brother Armel--"
"Good brother Julyan!" added Armel whose eyes also began to glisten, "we
shall have to prove to the stranger that we do not fear each other."
"Done, Armel--let's fight with sabres and bucklers."
The two friends reached out their hands to each other and pressed them
warmly. They entertained no rancor for each other; they loved each other
as warmly as ever; the combat decided upon by them was a not uncommon
outbreak of foolhardiness.
Joel was not sorry at seeing his kin act bravely before his guest; and
his family shared his views.
At the announcement of the battle, everybody present, even the little
children and young women and girls felt joyful; they clapped their hands
smiling and looked at each other proud of the good opinion that the
unknown visitor was to form of the courage of their family.
Mamm' Margarid thereupon addressed the young men: "The fight ends the
moment I lower my distaff."
"These children are feasting you at their best, friend guest," said Joel
to the stranger; "you will, in turn, have to feast them by telling them
and all of us some of the marvelous things that you have seen in your
travels."
"I could not do else than pay in my best coin for your hospitality,
friend," answered the stranger. "I shall tell you the stories."
"Let's hurry, brother Julyan," said Armel; "I have a strong desire to
hear the traveler. I can never get tired of listening to stories, but
the story-tellers are rare around Karnak."
"You see, friend," said Joel, "with what impatience your stories are
awaited. But before starting, and so as to give you strength, you shall
presently drink to the victor with good wine of Gaul," and turning to
his son: "Guilhern, fetch in the little keg of white wine from Beziers
that your brother Albinik brought us on his last trip; fill up the cup
in honor of the traveler."
When that was done, Joel said to Julyan and Armel:
"Now, boys, fall to with your sabres!"