the mound for the Judges and the Altar of the Gods before it. And
this was the holy place of the men of the Dale and of other folk
whereof the tale shall now tell.

For when Wildlake's Way had gone some three miles from the Mote-
stead, the trees began to thin, and presently afterwards was a
clearing and the dwellings of men, built of timber as may well be
thought. These houses were neither rich nor great, nor was the folk
a mighty folk, because they were but a few, albeit body by body they
were stout carles enough. They had not affinity with the Dalesmen,
and did not wed with them, yet it is to be deemed that they were
somewhat akin to them. To be short, though they were freemen, yet as
regards the Dalesmen were they well-nigh their servants; for they
were but poor in goods, and had to lean upon them somewhat. No
tillage they had among those high trees; and of beasts nought save
some flocks of goats and a few asses. Hunters they were, and
charcoal-burners, and therein the deftest of men, and they could
shoot well in the bow withal: so they trucked their charcoal and
their smoked venison and their peltries with the Dalesmen for wheat
and wine and weapons and weed; and the Dalesmen gave them main good
pennyworths, as men who had abundance wherewith to uphold their
kinsmen, though they were but far-away kin. Stout hands had these
Woodlanders and true hearts as any; but they were few-spoken and to
those that needed them not somewhat surly of speech and grim of
visage: brown-skinned they were, but light-haired; well-eyed, with
but little red in their cheeks: their women were not very fair, for
they toiled like the men, or more. They were thought to be wiser
than most men in foreseeing things to come. They were much given to
spells, and songs of wizardry, and were very mindful of the old
story-lays, wherein they were far more wordy than in their daily