These Shepherd-Folk were strong and tall like the Woodlanders, for
they were partly of the same blood, but burnt they were both ruddy
and brown: they were of more words than the Woodlanders but yet not
many-worded. They knew well all those old story-lays, (and this
partly by the minstrelsy of the Woodlanders,) but they had scant
skill in wizardry, and would send for the Woodlanders, both men and
women, to do whatso they needed therein. They were very hale and
long-lived, whereas they dwelt in clear bright air, and they mostly
went light-clad even in the winter, so strong and merry were they.
They wedded with the Woodlanders and the Dalesmen both; at least
certain houses of them did so. They grew no corn; nought but a few
pot-herbs, but had their meal of the Dalesmen; and in the summer they
drave some of their milch-kine into the Dale for the abundance of
grass there; whereas their own hills and bents and winding valleys
were not plenteously watered, except here and there as in the bottom
under Greenbury. No swine they had, and but few horses, but of sheep
very many, and of the best both for their flesh and their wool.
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