She said: 'Whence hadst thou this fair finger-ring?'
Said Face-of-god: 'My friend there in the mountain-valley drew it
from off her finger for thee, and bade me bear thee a message.'
Her face flushed red: 'Yea,' she said, 'and doth she send me a
message? Then doth she know of me, and ye have talked of me
together. Well, give the message!'
Said Face-of-god: 'She saith, that thou shalt bear in mind, That to-
morrow is a new day.'
'Yea,' she said, 'for her it is so, and for thee; but not for me.
But now I have brought thee here that thou mightest swear thine oath
to me; lay thine hand on this ring and on this brazen plate whereby
the sun measures the hours of the day for happy folk, and swear by
the spring-tide of the year and all glad things that find a mate, and
by the God of the Earth that rejoiceth in the life of man.'
Then he laid his hand on the finger-ring as it lay on the dial-plate
and said:
'By the spring-tide and the live things that long to multiply their
kind; by the God of the Earth that rejoiceth in the life of man, I
swear to give to my kinswoman the Bride the second man-child that I
beget; to be hers, to leave or cherish, to love or hate, as her will
may bid her.
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