The Gold Sickle; Or, Hena, The Virgin of The Isle of Sen. A Tale of Druid Gaul

by Eugène Sue

  CHAPTER II.

  A GALLIC HOMESTEAD.

  Like all other rural homes, Joel's was spacious and round of shape. Thewalls consisted of two rows of hurdles, the space between which wasfilled with a mixture of beaten clay and straw; the inside and outsideof the thick wall was plastered over with a layer of fine and fattishearth, which, when dry, was hard as sandstone. The roofing was large andprojecting. It consisted of oaken joists joined together and coveredwith 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 ofthe harvest, and also for the stables, the sheepfolds, the kennels, thestorerooms and the washrooms.

  These several structures formed an oblong square that surrounded a largeyard, closed up at night with a massive gate. On the outside, a strongpalisade, raised on the brow of a deep ditch, enclosed the system ofbuildings, leaving between it and them an alley about four feet wide.Two large and ferocious war mastiffs were let loose during the night inthe vacant space. The palisade had an exterior door that correspondedwith an interior one. All were locked at night.

  The number of men, women and children--all more or less near relativesof Joel--who cultivated fields in common with him, was considerable.These lodged in the houses attached to the principal building, wherethey met at noon and in the evening to take their joint meals.

  Other homesteads, similarly constructed and occupied by numerousfamilies who cultivated lands in common, lay scattered here and thereover the landscape and composed the _ligniez_, or tribe of Karnak, ofwhich Joel was chosen chief.

  Upon his entrance in the yard of his homestead, Joel was received withthe caresses of his old war dog Deber-Trud, an animal of an iron greycolor streaked with black, an enormous head, blood-shot eyes, and ofsuch a high stature that in standing up to caress his master he placedhis front paws upon Joel's shoulders. He was a dog of such boldness thathe once fought a monstrous bear of the mountains of Arres, and killedhim. As to his war qualities, Deber-Trud would have been worthy offiguring with the war pack of Bithert, the Gallic chieftain who at sightof a small hostile troop said disdainfully: "They are not enough for ameal 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 bringhome?"

  As if he understood the words, Deber-Trud ceased showing any uneasinessabout the stranger, and gamboled clumsily ahead of his master into thehouse. The house was partitioned into three sections of unequal size.The two smaller ones, separated from each other and from the main hallby oaken panels, were destined, one for Joel and his wife, the other forHena, their daughter, when she came to visit the family. The vast hallbetween the two served as a dining-room, and in it were performed thenoon 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 withits brilliancy rendered superfluous the light of a handsome lamp ofburnished copper that hung from three chains of the same metal. The lampwas 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 withwater, seasoned with vinegar, salt and caraway.

  The panels were ornamented with heads of wolves, boars, cerfs and of twowild bulls called _urok_, an animal that began to be rare in the region;beside them hung hunting weapons, such as bows, arrows and slings, andweapons of war, such as the _sparr_ and the _matag_, axes, sabres ofcopper, bucklers of wood covered with the tough skin of seals, and longlances with iron heads, sharpened and barbed and provided with littlebrass bells, intended to notify the enemy from afar that the Gallicwarrior approached, seeing that the latter disdains ambuscades, andloves to fight in the open. There were also fishing nets and harpoons toharpoon the salmon in the shallows when the tide goes out.

  To the right of the main door stood a kind of altar, consisting of ablock of granite, surmounted and covered by large oak branches freshlycut. A little copper bowl lay on the stone in which seven twigs ofmistletoe stood. From above, on the wall, the following inscriptionlooked 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 inwhich stood the seven branches of mistletoe and reverently put his lipsto each. His guest followed his example, and then both walked towardsthe hearth.

  At the hearth was Mamm' Margarid, Joel's wife, with a distaff. She wastall of stature, and wore a short, sleeveless tunic of brown wool over along robe of grey with narrow sleeves, both tunic and robe beingfastened around her waist with her apron string. A white cap, cutsquare, left exposed her grey hair, that parted over her forehead. Likemany other women of her kin, she wore a coral necklace round her neck,bracelets inwrought with garnets and other trinkets of gold and silverfashioned at Autun.

  Around Mamm' Margarid played the children of Guilhern and several otherof her kin, while their young mothers busied themselves preparingsupper.

  "Margarid," said Joel to his wife, "I bring a guest to you."

  "He is welcome," answered the woman without stopping to spin. "The godssend us a guest, our hearth is his own. The eve of my daughter's birthis 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 forthe long autumn and winter nights; a guest who in the course of histravels has seen so many curious things and wonderful that a hundredevenings would not be too many to listen to his marvelous stories."

  Hardly had Joel pronounced these words when, from Mamm' Margarid and theyoung mothers down to the little boys and girls, all looked at thestranger with the greed of curiosity, expectant of the marvelous storieshe was to tell.

  "Are we to have supper soon, Margarid?" asked Joel. "Our guest isprobably as hungry as myself; I am hungry as a wolf."

  "The folk have just gone out to fill the racks of the cattle," answeredMargarid; "they will be back shortly. If our guest is willing we shallbe 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 forall.... The cup will shortly circulate from lip to lip, and the storyfrom ear to ear.... But now tell me, what is that brass belt for that Isee 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 thechief and try on the belt, in order to prove that their girth has notbroadened with self-indulgence, and that they have preserved themselvesagile and nimble. Those who cannot hitch the belt around themselves, arehissed, are pointed at with derision, and must pay a fine. Accordingly,all see to their stomachs lest they come to look like a leathern bottleon two skittles."

  "A good custom. I regret it fell into disuse in my province. And what isthe purpose of that big old trunk? It is of precious wood and seems tohave seen many years."

  "Very many. That is the family trunk of triumph," answered Joel openingthe 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 yourfathers, friend Joel? With us this sort of family charnel houses haslong been abandoned."

  "With us also. I preserve these heads only out of respect for myancestors. Since more than two hundred years, the prisoners of war areno longer mutilated. The habit existed in the days of the kings whomRitha-Gaur shaved
of their hair, as you mentioned before, to makehimself a blouse out of their beards. Those were gay days of barbarism,were those days of royalty. I heard my grandfather Kirio say that evenas late as in the days of his father, Tiras, the men who went to warreturned to their tribes carrying the heads of their enemies stuck tothe points of their lances, or trailed by the hair from thebreast-plates of their horses. They were then nailed to the doors of thehouses for trophies, just as you see yonder on the wall the heads ofwild animals."

  "With us, in olden days, friend Joel, these trophies were alsopreserved, but preserved in cedar oil when they were the heads of ahostile 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 youngGaul learned of the exploits of his fathers. Often did the families ofthe vanquished offer to ransom these spoils; but to relinquish for moneya head conquered by oneself or an ancestor was looked upon as anunpardonable crime of avarice and impiousness. I say with you, thosebarbarous customs passed away with royalty, and with them the days whenour ancestors painted their bodies blue and scarlet, and dyed their hairand beard with lime water to impart to them a copper-red hue."

  "Without wronging their memory, friend guest, our ancestors must havebeen unpleasant beings to look upon, and must have resembled thefrightful red and blue dragons that ornament the prows of the vessels ofthose savage pirates of the North that my son Albinik the sailor and hislovely wife Meroe have told us some curious tales about. But here areour men back from the stables; we shall not have to wait much longer forsupper. I see Margarid unspitting the lambs. You shall taste them,friend, and see what a fine taste the salt meadows on which they browseimpart to their flesh."

  All the men of the family of Joel who entered the hall wore, like him, asleeveless blouse of coarse wool, through which the sleeves of theirjackets or white shirts were passed. Their breeches reached down totheir ankles; and they were shod with low slippers. Several of theselaborers, just in from the fields, wore over their shoulders a cloak ofsheep-skin, which they immediately took off. All wore woolen caps, longhair cut round, and bushy beards. The last two to enter held each otherby 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 sovaliant an aspect."

  "They are two relatives of mine; two cousins, Julyan and Armel. Theylove each other like brothers.... Quite recently an enraged bull rushedat Armel and Julyan saved Armel at the peril of his own life. Thanks toHesus we are not now in times of war. But should it be necessary to takeup arms, Julyan and Armel have taken 'the pledge of brotherhood'.... Butsupper is ready.... Come, yours is the seat of honor."

  Joel and the unknown guest drew near the table. It was round and raisedsomewhat above the floor which was covered with fresh straw. All aroundthe table were seats bolstered with fragrant grass. The two broiledmuttons, now quartered, were served up in large platters of beechwood,white as ivory. There were also large pieces of salted pork and a smokedham of wild boar. The fish remained in the large pot that they had beenboiled in.

  At the place where Joel, the head of the family, took his seat, stood ahuge cup of plated copper that even two men could not have drained. Itwas before that cup, which marked the place of honor, that the strangerwas placed with Joel at his left and Mamm' Margarid at his right.

  The old men, the young girls and the children then ranked themselvesaround the table. The grown up and the young men sat down behind thesein a second row, from which they rose from time to time to perform someservice, or, every time that, passing from hand to hand, beginning withthe stranger, the large cup was empty, to fill it from a barrel ofhydromel, that was placed at a corner of the hall. Furnished with apiece of barley or wheat bread, everyone received or took a slice ofbroiled or salted meat, which he cut up with his knife, or into which hebit freely without the help of knife.

  The old war-dog Deber-Trud, enjoying the privileges of his age and longyears of service, lay at the feet of Joel, who did not forget hisfaithful 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 youngrelative Armel, handing it to him:

  "To you, Armel, belongs the bravest part! To you, the vanquisher in lastevening's fight!"

  At the moment when, proud of being pronounced the bravest in thepresence of the stranger, Armel was stretching out his hand to take thewild boar's hoof that Joel presented to him, an exceptionally short manin 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 notlock horns."

  Feeling humiliated at hearing it said of them, and before a stranger,that they did not fight together because they were mutually afraid ofeach other, Julyan and Armel grew red in the face.

  With sparkling eyes, Julyan cried: "If I did not fight with Armel it wasbecause someone else took my place; but Julyan fears Armel as little asArmel fears Julyan; and if you were but one inch taller, Stumpy, I wouldshow you on the spot that, beginning with you, I fear nobody--not evenmy good brother Armel--"

  "Good brother Julyan!" added Armel whose eyes also began to glisten, "weshall 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 themwarmly. They entertained no rancor for each other; they loved each otheras warmly as ever; the combat decided upon by them was a not uncommonoutbreak of foolhardiness.

  Joel was not sorry at seeing his kin act bravely before his guest; andhis family shared his views.

  At the announcement of the battle, everybody present, even the littlechildren and young women and girls felt joyful; they clapped their handssmiling and looked at each other proud of the good opinion that theunknown visitor was to form of the courage of their family.

  Mamm' Margarid thereupon addressed the young men: "The fight ends themoment I lower my distaff."

  "These children are feasting you at their best, friend guest," said Joelto the stranger; "you will, in turn, have to feast them by telling themand all of us some of the marvelous things that you have seen in yourtravels."

  "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 tohear the traveler. I can never get tired of listening to stories, butthe story-tellers are rare around Karnak."

  "You see, friend," said Joel, "with what impatience your stories areawaited. But before starting, and so as to give you strength, you shallpresently drink to the victor with good wine of Gaul," and turning tohis son: "Guilhern, fetch in the little keg of white wine from Beziersthat your brother Albinik brought us on his last trip; fill up the cupin honor of the traveler."

  When that was done, Joel said to Julyan and Armel:

  "Now, boys, fall to with your sabres!"