CHAPTER XXVIII: OF THE NEW GOD OF THE BEARS
At last the old man said: "My children, ye shall now come with me untothe Doom-ring of our folk, the Bears of the Southern Dales, and deliverto them your errand; and I beseech you to have pity upon your own bodies,as I have pity on them; on thine especially, Maiden, so fair and bright acreature as thou art; for so it is, that if ye deal us out light andlying words after the manner of dastards, ye shall miss the worship andglory of wending away amidst of the flames, a gift to the God and a hopeto the people, and shall be passed by the rods of the folk, until yefaint and fail amongst them, and then shall ye be thrust down into theflow at the Dale's End, and a stone-laden hurdle cast upon you, that wemay thenceforth forget your folly."
The Maid now looked full into his eyes, and Walter deemed that the oldman shrank before her; but she said: "Thou art old and wise, O great manof the Bears, yet nought I need to learn of thee. Now lead us on our wayto the Stead of the Errands."
So the elder brought them along to the Doom-ring at the eastern end ofthe Dale; and it was now all peopled with those huge men, weaponed aftertheir fashion, and standing up, so that the grey stones thereof butshowed a little over their heads. But amidmost of the said Ring was abig stone, fashioned as a chair, whereon sat a very old man, long-hoaryand white-bearded, and on either side of him stood a great-limbed womanclad in war-gear, holding, each of them, a long spear, and with a flint-bladed knife in the girdle; and there were no other women in all theMote.
Then the elder led those twain into the midst of the Mote, and there badethem go up on to a wide, flat-topped stone, six feet above the ground,just over against the ancient chieftain; and they mounted it by a roughstair, and stood there before that folk; Walter in his array of theoutward world, which had been fair enough, of crimson cloth and silk, andwhite linen, but was now travel-stained and worn; and the Maid withnought upon her, save the smock wherein she had fled from the GoldenHouse of the Wood beyond the World, decked with the faded flowers whichshe had wreathed about her yesterday. Nevertheless, so it was, thatthose big men eyed her intently, and with somewhat of worship.
Now did Walter, according to her bidding, sink down on his knees besideher, and drawing his sword, hold it before him, as if to keep allinterlopers aloof from the Maid. And there was silence in the Mote, andall eyes were fixed on those twain.
At last the old chief arose and spake: "Ye men, here are come a man and awoman, we know not whence; whereas they have given word to our folk whofirst met them, that they would tell their errand to none save the Moteof the People; which it was their due to do, if they were minded to riskit. For either they be aliens without an errand hither, save, it may be,to beguile us, in which case they shall presently die an evil death; orthey have come amongst us that we may give them to the God with flint-edge and fire; or they have a message to us from some folk or other, onthe issue of which lieth life or death. Now shall ye hear what they haveto say concerning themselves and their faring hither. But, meseemeth, itshall be the woman who is the chief and hath the word in her mouth; for,lo you! the man kneeleth at her feet, as one who would serve and worshipher. Speak out then, woman, and let our warriors hear thee."
Then the Maid lifted up her voice, and spake out clear and shrilling,like to a flute of the best of the minstrels: "Ye men of the Children ofthe Bear, I would ask you a question, and let the chieftain who sittethbefore me answer it."
The old man nodded his head, and she went on: "Tell me, Children of theBear, how long a time is worn since ye saw the God of your worship mademanifest in the body of a woman!"
Said the elder: "Many winters have worn since my father's father was achild, and saw the very God in the bodily form of a woman."
Then she said again: "Did ye rejoice at her coming, and would ye rejoiceif once more she came amongst you?"
"Yea," said the old chieftain, "for she gave us gifts, and learned uslore, and came to us in no terrible shape, but as a young woman as goodlyas thou."
Then said the Maid: "Now, then, is the day of your gladness come; for theold body is dead, and I am the new body of your God, come amongst you foryour welfare."
Then fell a great silence on the Mote, till the old man spake and said:"What shall I say and live? For if thou be verily the God, and Ithreaten thee, wilt thou not destroy me? But thou hast spoken a greatword with a sweet mouth, and hast taken the burden of blood on thy lilyhands; and if the Children of the Bear be befooled of light liars, howshall they put the shame off them? Therefore I say, show to us a token;and if thou be the God, this shall be easy to thee; and if thou show itnot, then is thy falsehood manifest, and thou shalt dree the weird. Forwe shall deliver thee into the hands of these women here, who shallthrust thee down into the flow which is hereby, after they have weariedthemselves with whipping thee. But thy man that kneeleth at thy feetshall we give to the true God, and he shall go to her by the road of theflint and the fire. Hast thou heard? Then give to us the sign and thetoken."
She changed countenance no whit at his word; but her eyes were thebrighter, and her cheek the fresher and her feet moved a little, as ifthey were growing glad before the dance; and she looked out over theMote, and spake in her clear voice: "Old man, thou needest not to fearfor thy words. Forsooth it is not me whom thou threatenest with stripesand a foul death, but some light fool and liar, who is not here. Nowhearken! I wot well that ye would have somewhat of me, to wit, that Ishould send you rain to end this drought, which otherwise seemeth like tolie long upon you: but this rain, I must go into the mountains of thesouth to fetch it you; therefore shall certain of your warriors bring meon my way, with this my man, up to the great pass of the said mountains,and we shall set out thitherward this very day."
She was silent a while, and all looked on her, but none spake or moved,so that they seemed as images of stone amongst the stones.
Then she spake again and said: "Some would say, men of the Bear, thatthis were a sign and a token great enough; but I know you, and howstubborn and perverse of heart ye be; and how that the gift not yetwithin your hand is no gift to you; and the wonder ye see not, yourhearts trow not. Therefore look ye upon me as here I stand, I who havecome from the fairer country and the greenwood of the lands, and see if Ibear not the summer with me, and the heart that maketh increase and thehand that giveth."
Lo then! as she spake, the faded flowers that hung about her gatheredlife and grew fresh again; the woodbine round her neck and her sleekshoulders knit itself together and embraced her freshly, and cast itsscent about her face. The lilies that girded her loins lifted up theirheads, and the gold of their tassels fell upon her; the eyebright grewclean blue again upon her smock; the eglantine found its blooms again,and then began to shed the leaves thereof upon her feet; the meadow-sweetwreathed amongst it made clear the sweetness of her legs, and the mouse-ear studded her raiment as with gems. There she stood amidst of theblossoms, like a great orient pearl against the fretwork of thegoldsmiths, and the breeze that came up the valley from behind bore thesweetness of her fragrance all over the Man-mote.
Then, indeed, the Bears stood up, and shouted and cried, and smote ontheir shields, and tossed their spears aloft. Then the elder rose fromhis seat, and came up humbly to where she stood, and prayed her to saywhat she would have done; while the others drew about in knots, but durstnot come very nigh to her. She answered the ancient chief, and said,that she would depart presently toward the mountains, whereby she mightsend them the rain which they lacked, and that thence she would away tothe southward for a while; but that they should hear of her, or, it mightbe, see her, before they who were now of middle age should be gone totheir fathers.
Then the old man besought her that they might make her a litter offragrant green boughs, and so bear her away toward the mountain passamidst a triumph of the whole folk. But she leapt lightly down from thestone, and walked to and fro on the greensward, while it seemed of herthat her feet scarce touched the grass; and she spake to the ancientchief where he sti
ll kneeled in worship of her, and said "Nay; deemestthou of me that I need bearing by men's hands, or that I shall tire atall when I am doing my will, and I, the very heart of the year'sincrease? So it is, that the going of my feet over your pastures shallmake them to thrive, both this year and the coming years: surely will Igo afoot."
So they worshipped her the more, and blessed her; and then first of allthey brought meat, the daintiest they might, both for her and for Walter.But they would not look on the Maid whiles she ate, or suffer Walter tobehold her the while. Afterwards, when they had eaten, some twenty men,weaponed after their fashion, made them ready to wend with the Maiden upinto the mountains, and anon they set out thitherward all together.Howbeit, the huge men held them ever somewhat aloof from the Maid; andwhen they came to the resting-place for that night, where was no house,for it was up amongst the foot-hills before the mountains, then it was awonder to see how carefully they built up a sleeping-place for her, andtilted it over with their skin-cloaks, and how they watched nightlongabout her. But Walter they let sleep peacefully on the grass, a littleway aloof from the watchers round the Maid.