The contrast between it and the Roman city but two-and-twenty
miles away was striking. No great advance had
been made upon the homes that the people had occupied
in Gaul before their emigration. In the centre
stood Parta’s abode, distinguished from the rest
only by its superior size. The walls were of
mud and stone, the roof high, so as to let the water
run more easily off the rough thatching. It contained
but one central hall surrounded by half a dozen small
apartments.
The huts of the people consisted but of a single room,
with a hole in the roof by which the smoke of the
fire in the centre made its way out. The doorway
was generally closed by a wattle secured by a bar.
When this was closed light only found its way into
the room through the chinks of the wattle and the
hole in the roof. In winter, for extra warmth,
a skin was hung before the door. Beyond piles
of hides, which served as seats by day and beds at
night, there was no furniture whatever in the rooms,
save a few earthen cooking pots.
Parta’s abode, however, was more sumptuously
furnished. Across one end ran a sort of dais
of beaten earth, raised a foot above the rest of the
floor. This was thickly strewn with fresh rushes,
and there was a rough table and benches. The
walls of the apartment were hidden by skins, principally
those of wolves.
The fireplace was in the centre of the lower part
of the hall, and arranged on a shelf against the wall
were cooking pots of iron and brass; while on a similar
shelf on the wall above the dais were jugs and drinking
vessels of gold. Hams of wild boar and swine hung
from the rafters, where too were suspended wild duck
and fish, and other articles of food. Parta’s
own apartment led from the back of the dais.
That of Beric was next to it, its separate use having
been granted to him on his return from Camalodunum,
not without some scoffing remarks upon his effeminacy
in requiring a separate apartment, instead of sleeping
as usual on the dais; while the followers and attendants
stretched themselves on the floor of the hall.
Shouts of welcome saluted Beric as with his party
he crossed the rough bridge over the stream and descended
the slope to the village. Some fifteen hundred
men were gathered here, all armed for the chase with
spears, javelins, and long knives. Their hair
fell over their necks, their faces were, according
to the universal custom, shaved with the exception
of the moustache. Many of them were tattooed—a
custom that at one time had been universal, but was
now dying out among the more civilized. Most of
them were, save for the mantle, naked from the waist
up, the body being stained a deep blue with woad—a
plant largely cultivated for its dye. This plant,
known as Isatis tinctoria, is still grown in France
and Flanders. It requires rich ground and grows
to a height of three or four feet, bearing yellow
