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
speech. Much skill had they in runes, and were exceeding deft in
scoring them on treen bowls, and on staves, and door-posts and roof-
beams and standing-beds and such like things.
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