To many have they appointed
to dig and mine in the silver-yielding cliffs, and of all the tasks
is that the sorest, and there do stripes abound the most. Such
thralls art thou happy not to behold till thou hast set them free; as
we shall do.'
'Tell me again,' said Face-of-god; 'Is there no mixed folk between
these Dusky Men and the Dalesmen, since they have no women of their
own, but lie with the women of the Dale? Moreover, do not the poor
folk of the Dale beget and bear children, so that there are thralls
born of thralls?'
'Wisely thou askest this,' said Folk-might, 'but thereof shall I tell
thee, that when a Dusky Carle mingles with a woman of the Dale, the
child which she beareth shall oftenest favour his race and not hers;
or else shall it be witless, a fool natural. But as for the children
of these poor thralls; yea, the masters cause them to breed if so
their masterships will, and when the children are born, they keep
them or slay them as they will, as they would with whelps or calves.
To be short, year by year these vile wretches grow fiercer and more
beastly, and their thralls more hapless and down-trodden; and now at
last is come the time either to do or to die, as ye men of Burgdale
shall speedily find out.
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