Those red and
yellow things on the poles he deemed would be the banners of the
murder-carles; and Folk-might told him that even so it was, and that
they were but big bunches of strips of woollen cloth, much like to
great ragmops, save that the rags were larger and longer: no other
token of war, said Folk-might, did those folk carry, save a
crookbladed sword, smeared with man's blood, and bigger than any man
might wield in battle.
'Art thou far-seeing, War-leader?' quoth he. 'What canst thou see in
the market-place?'
Said Face-of-god: 'Far-seeing am I above most men, and I see in the
Place a man in scarlet standing by the banner, which is pitched in
front of the great stone hall, near to the mound with the white stone
on it; and meseemeth he beareth a great horn in his hand.'
Said Folk-might: 'Yea, and that stone hall was our Mote-house when
we were lords of the Dale, and thence it was that they who are now
thralls of the Dusky Men sent to them their message and token of
yielding. And as for that white stone, it is the altar of their god;
for they have but one, and he is that same crook-bladed sword.
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