if they did not exist.

Whilst I was talking to my friend Eric, a sudden altercation broke out
upon the deck, and a great number of the men paused in their work, and
flocked towards the spot with faces which showed that they were deeply
interested in the matter. Eric and I pushed our way among the others,
for I was very anxious to see as much as I could of the ways and manners
of these Barbarians. A quarrel had broken out about a child, a little
blue-eyed fellow with curly yellow hair, who appeared to be greatly
amused by the hubbub of which he was the cause. On one side of him
stood a white-bearded old man, of very majestic aspect, who signified by
his gestures that he claimed the lad for himself, while on the other was
a thin, earnest, anxious person, who strongly objected to the boy being
taken from him. Eric whispered in my ear that the old man was the
tribal high priest, who was the official sacrificer to their great god
Woden, whilst the other was a man who took somewhat different views, not
upon Woden, but upon the means by which he should be worshipped.
The majority of the crew were on the side of the old priest; but a
certain number, who liked greater liberty of worship, and to invent
their own prayers instead of always repeating the official ones,
followed the lead of the younger man. The difference was too deep and
too old to be healed among the grown men, but each had a great desire to
impress their view upon the children. This was the reason why these two
were now so furious with each other, and the argument between them ran
so high that several of their followers on either side had drawn the
short saxes, or knives from which their name of Saxon is derived, when a
burly, red-headed man pushed his way through the throng, and in a voice
of thunder brought the controversy to an end.

"You priests, who argue about the things which no man can know, are more