ng afternoon they arrived in
sight of a cluster of little homesteads, clay huts thatched with
bracken and fenced about with bushes of poison-thorn, and of tilled
crofts sloping down the hillside to a clear river wending through the
valley.

As Hilary and his companions approached they saw that it was a day of
rejoicing and merry-making among the people, for they were all abroad,
feasting and drinking from great mead horns in the open air, and
shouting barbarous songs to the noise of rude instruments. When it
grew to such duskiness as there may be in a midsummer night countless
fires were lit, near at hand and far away, on the hills around; and on
the ridges above the river children ran about with blazing brands of
pine-wood, and young men and maidens gathered at the flaming beacon.
Wheels, too, wrapped round tire and spoke with straw and flax smeared
with pine-tree gum, were set alight and sent rolling down the hill to
the river, amid wild cries and clapping of hands. Some of the wheels
went awry and were stayed among the boulders; on some the flames died
out; but there were those which reached the river and plunged into the
water and were extinguished; and the owners of these last deemed
themselves fortunate in their omens, for these fiery wheels were images
of the sun in heaven, and their course to the river was the forecasting
of his prosperous journey through the year to come.

Thus these outland people held their festival, and Hilary marvelled to
see the many fires, for he had not known that the land held so many
folk. But now when it was time for the wayfarers to cast about in
their minds how and where they should pass the night, there came to
them a stranger, a grave and seemly man clad in the manner of the
Romans, and he bowed low to them, and said: "O saintly men, the Lady
Pelagia hath heard of your coming into this land, and she knows that
you have come to teach men the new faith, for she is a great lady,
mistress of vast demesnes, and many messengers bring her tidings of all
that happens. She bids me greet you humbly and prevail on you to come
and abide this night in her house, which is but a little way from here."

"Is your lady of Rome?" asked Hilary.

"From Rome she came hither," said the messenger, "but aforetime she was
of Greece, and she hath great friendship for all wise and holy men."

The wayfarers were surprised to hear of this lady, but they were
rejoiced that, after such long wandering, t