The form was so much like an organic part of the entire
motionless structure that to see it move would have
impressed the mind as a strange phenomenon. Immobility
being the chief characteristic of that whole which
the person formed portion of, the discontinuance of
immobility in any quarter suggested confusion.
Yet that is what happened. The figure perceptibly
gave up its fixity, shifted a step or two, and turned
round. As if alarmed, it descended on the right
side of the barrow, with the glide of a water-drop
down a bud, and then vanished. The movement had
been sufficient to show more clearly the characteristics
of the figure, and that it was a woman’s.
The reason of her sudden displacement now appeared.
With her dropping out of sight on the right side,
a new-comer, bearing a burden, protruded into the
sky on the left side, ascended the tumulus, and deposited
the burden on the top. A second followed, then
a third, a fourth, a fifth, and ultimately the whole
barrow was peopled with burdened figures.
The only intelligible meaning in this sky-backed pantomime
of silhouettes was that the woman had no relation
to the forms who had taken her place, was sedulously
avoiding these, and had come thither for another object
than theirs. The imagination of the observer clung
by preference to that vanished, solitary figure, as
to something more interesting, more important, more
likely to have a history worth knowing than these
new-comers, and unconsciously regarded them as intruders.
But they remained, and established themselves; and
the lonely person who hitherto had been queen of the
solitude did not at present seem likely to return.
The Custom of the Country
Had a looker-on been posted in the immediate vicinity
of the barrow, he would have learned that these persons
were boys and men of the neighbouring hamlets.
Each, as he ascended the barrow, had been heavily
laden with furze-faggots, carried upon the shoulder
by means of a long stake sharpened at each end for
impaling them easily—two in front and two
behind. They came from a part of the heath a quarter
of a mile to the rear, where furze almost exclusively
prevailed as a product.
Every individual was so involved in furze by his method
of carrying the faggots that he appeared like a bush
on legs till he had thrown them down. The party
had marched in trail, like a travelling flock of sheep;
that is to say, the strongest first, the weak and young
behind.
The loads were all laid together, and a pyramid of
furze thirty feet in circumference now occupied the
crown of the tumulus, which was known as Rainbarrow
for many miles round. Some made themselves busy
with matches, and in selecting the driest tufts of
furze, others in loosening the bramble bonds which
held the faggots together. Others, again, while
this was in progress, lifted their eyes and swept the
vast expanse of country commanded by their position,
now lying nearly obliterated by shade. In the
valleys of the heath nothing save its own wild face
was visible at any time of day; but this spot commanded
a horizon enclosing a tract of far extent, and in many
cases lying beyond the heath country. None of
its features could be seen now, but the whole made
itself felt as a vague stretch of remoteness.
