you," continued the old man; "I believe you on your mere
word. Not to bind you faster--for what can bind the false?--but because
I cling to old custom, and because _that_ succeeds best which is done
after the manner of our forefathers--follow me."

CHAPTER II.

Hildebrand took the torch from the column, and went across the inner
space, past the cella of the temple, past the ruined high altar, past
the bases of the statues of the gods--long since fallen--to the
porticum or back of the edifice. Silently his companions followed the
old man, who led them down the steps into the open field.

After a short walk they stopped under an ancient holm, whose mighty
boughs held off storm and rain like a roof.

A strange sight presented itself under this oak, which, however, at
once reminded the old man's Gothic companions of a custom of ancient
heathen times in their distant Northern home.

Under the oak a strip of thick turf, only a foot broad, but several
yards long, had been cut loose from the ground; the two ends of the
strip still lay in the shallow ditch thus formed, but in the middle it
was raised over and supported by three long spears of unequal length,
which were fixed into the ground, the tallest spear being in the
middle, so that the whole arrangement formed a triangle, under which
several men could stand commodiously between the shafts of the spears.

In the ditch stood a brazen cauldron filled with water, near it lay a
pointed and sharp butcher's knife, of extremely ancient form; the haft
was made of the horn of the ure-ox, the blade of flint.

The old man came forward, stuck the torch into the earth close to the
cauldron, and then stepped, right foot foremost, into the ditch; he
turned to the east and bent his head, then he beckoned to his friends
to join him, putting his finger to his lip in sign of silence. Without
a sound the four men stepped into the ditch beside him, Witichis and
Teja to his right, the two brothers to his left, and all five joined
hands in a solemn chain.

Then the old man loosened his hands from those of Witichis and
Hildebad, who stood next to him, and knelt down. First he took up a
handful of the black mould and threw it over his left shoulder; then he
dipped his other hand into the cauldron and sprinkled the water to the
right behind him. After this he blew into the windy night-air that
rustled in his long beard; and, lastly, he swung the torch from r