stalls, pens, tents and other temporary buildings were being erected. Each group from the Six Realms had brought goods they wished to trade, as well as livestock, publications, new tools. The people of the Draachenheem seemed a little disdainful of the others while the Ghost Women kept themselves thoroughly apart.
One group seemed more used to trading. They had the hardy, simple look of a people who regularly carried on barter in a variety of locations. It was the way in which they set up their stalls, looked at their neighbours, chatted amongst themselves, which characterised them. The only surprise, for me, was their inefficient boats. They must be more used to making overland treks for their normal trading, I thought. These were the people whose realm was called Fluugensheem, who were protected, I remembered being told, by a flying island. They seemed singularly ordinary for folk so exotically named.
There was still no sign of those who had come here in the oddly shaped ark, nor of the occupants of the three bulky paddle-steamers.
“This evening,” Jurgin told me, “they will begin the first ceremony, when all announce themselves and give up their names. Then you shall see them, every one, including the Ursine Princes.”
He would say no more. When I asked him why the Ursine Princes were so named he would only grin at me. Since my chief interest was in those they called the Ghost Women, I was not greatly upset by his deliberate mystification.
Needless to say von Bek and myself were not amongst those invited to attend the first ceremony, but we watched from the rigging of the
Frowning Shield
as gradually the various peoples of the Six Realms began to assemble about the monolith. This was called, I was told, the Meeting Stone and had been erected several centuries before, when these strange gatherings first began. Until then, Bellanda informed me, all the various realms had regarded the others with superstitious fear and had fought each other at random. Gradually, with familiarity, they had struck upon this means of trading and exchanging information. Every thirteen and a half months, apparently, the Six Realms intersected so that each realm could enter any one of the others. This period was brief—three days or so—but it was enough for everyone to conduct their business, so long as it was agreed that only the most formal rules were applied. No time could be wasted on anything but the agreed activities.
Now the stolid merchants of Fluugensheem came to take their places on one side of the monolith. Next the Ghost Women of Gheestenheem arranged themselves on the other side of the Meeting Stone. They were followed by six Baron Captains of the Maaschanheem, six splendid lordlings of the Draachenheem, and, from the strange steamers, six fur-festooned and bearded Rootsenheemers, wearing great metal gauntlets and metal masks which obscured the top halves of their heads. But it was the last contingent which stunned me.
The Ursine Princes were precisely named. The five great, handsome beasts who marched out of their ark and down the lowered ramp to the ground were not human at all. They were bears, bigger than grizzlies, clad in rippling silks and fine plaids, each wearing upon his shoulders a kind of delicate frame from which, suspended over his head, hung a banner—doubtless the banner of his family.
Von Bek was frowning. “I am astonished. It is as if I look at the legendary founders of Berlin! You know we have legends… My family has stories concerning intelligent beasts. I had thought they spoke of wolves, but doubtless it is of bears. Have you seen anything like the Ursine Princes in your travels, Daker?”
“Nothing quite like them,” I said. I was greatly impressed by their beauty. Soon they, too, were grouped around the Meeting Stone and we were able to catch a few words of the ceremony. Each person gave his or her name. Each described his or her intention in coming to the Massing. This done, one of the
One group seemed more used to trading. They had the hardy, simple look of a people who regularly carried on barter in a variety of locations. It was the way in which they set up their stalls, looked at their neighbours, chatted amongst themselves, which characterised them. The only surprise, for me, was their inefficient boats. They must be more used to making overland treks for their normal trading, I thought. These were the people whose realm was called Fluugensheem, who were protected, I remembered being told, by a flying island. They seemed singularly ordinary for folk so exotically named.
There was still no sign of those who had come here in the oddly shaped ark, nor of the occupants of the three bulky paddle-steamers.
“This evening,” Jurgin told me, “they will begin the first ceremony, when all announce themselves and give up their names. Then you shall see them, every one, including the Ursine Princes.”
He would say no more. When I asked him why the Ursine Princes were so named he would only grin at me. Since my chief interest was in those they called the Ghost Women, I was not greatly upset by his deliberate mystification.
Needless to say von Bek and myself were not amongst those invited to attend the first ceremony, but we watched from the rigging of the
Frowning Shield
as gradually the various peoples of the Six Realms began to assemble about the monolith. This was called, I was told, the Meeting Stone and had been erected several centuries before, when these strange gatherings first began. Until then, Bellanda informed me, all the various realms had regarded the others with superstitious fear and had fought each other at random. Gradually, with familiarity, they had struck upon this means of trading and exchanging information. Every thirteen and a half months, apparently, the Six Realms intersected so that each realm could enter any one of the others. This period was brief—three days or so—but it was enough for everyone to conduct their business, so long as it was agreed that only the most formal rules were applied. No time could be wasted on anything but the agreed activities.
Now the stolid merchants of Fluugensheem came to take their places on one side of the monolith. Next the Ghost Women of Gheestenheem arranged themselves on the other side of the Meeting Stone. They were followed by six Baron Captains of the Maaschanheem, six splendid lordlings of the Draachenheem, and, from the strange steamers, six fur-festooned and bearded Rootsenheemers, wearing great metal gauntlets and metal masks which obscured the top halves of their heads. But it was the last contingent which stunned me.
The Ursine Princes were precisely named. The five great, handsome beasts who marched out of their ark and down the lowered ramp to the ground were not human at all. They were bears, bigger than grizzlies, clad in rippling silks and fine plaids, each wearing upon his shoulders a kind of delicate frame from which, suspended over his head, hung a banner—doubtless the banner of his family.
Von Bek was frowning. “I am astonished. It is as if I look at the legendary founders of Berlin! You know we have legends… My family has stories concerning intelligent beasts. I had thought they spoke of wolves, but doubtless it is of bears. Have you seen anything like the Ursine Princes in your travels, Daker?”
“Nothing quite like them,” I said. I was greatly impressed by their beauty. Soon they, too, were grouped around the Meeting Stone and we were able to catch a few words of the ceremony. Each person gave his or her name. Each described his or her intention in coming to the Massing. This done, one of the
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