“It is always they who come to us, we go not
to them. They are jealous of our entering their
country, and men who go too far in search of game
have often been shot at by invisible foes. They
take care that their arrows don’t strike, but
shoot only as a warning that we must go no farther.
Sometimes some foolhardy men have declared that they
will go where they like in spite of the Fenmen, and
they have gone, but they have never returned.
When we have asked the men who come in to trade what
has become of them they say ’they do not know,
most likely they had lost their way and died miserably,
or fallen into a swamp and perished there;’ and
as the men have certainly lost their lives through
their own obstinacy nothing can be done.”
“Then some of these men speak our tongue, I
suppose?” Aska said.
“Yes, the men who come are generally the same,
and these mostly speak a little of our language.
From time to time some of our maidens have taken a
fancy to these Fenmen, and in spite of all their friends
could do have gone off. None of these have ever
returned, though messages have been brought saying
they were well. We think that the men who do
the trading are the children of women who went to
live among them years ago.”
“Then it is through one of these men that we
must open communications with them,” Aska said.
“Some of them are here almost daily. No
one has been today, and therefore we may expect one
tomorrow morning. This is one of the chief places
of trade with them. The women of the hamlets round
bring here the cloth they have woven to exchange it
for their goods, others from beyond them do the same,
so that from all this part of the district goods are
brought in here, while the fish and baskets of the
Fenmen go far and wide.”
Soon after daybreak next morning the headman came
into the hut he had placed at the disposal of Aska
and Beric with news that two of the Fenmen had arrived.
They at once went out and found that the two men had
just laid down their loads, which were so heavy that
Beric wondered they could possibly have been carried
by them. One had brought fish, the other wildfowl,
slung on poles over their shoulders. These men
were much shorter than the Iceni, they were swarthier
in complexion, and their hair was long and matted.
Their only clothing was short kilts made of the materials
for which they bartered their game.
“They both speak the language well,” the
headman said, “I will tell them what you want.”
The men listened to the statement that the chiefs
before them desired to find with their followers a
refuge in the Fens, and that they were willing to
make presents to the Fenmen of cattle and other things,
so that there should be friendship between them, and
that they should be allowed to occupy some island
in the swamps where they might live secure from pursuit.
The men looked at each other as the headman began
to speak, shaking their heads as if they thought the
proposal impossible.
