seals watching the scuffle. My good Eddi--my chaplain--insisted
that they were demons. Yes--yess! That was my first acquaintance with
the South Saxons and their seals.'

'But not the only time you were wrecked, was it?' said Dan.

'Alas, no! On sea and land my life seems to have been one long
shipwreck,' He looked at the Jhone Coline slab as old Hobden sometimes
looks into the fire. 'Ah, well!'

'But did you ever have any more adventures among the seals?' said Una,
after a pause.

'Oh, the seals! I beg your pardon. They are the important things.
Yes--yess! I went back to the South Saxons after twelve--fifteen years.
No, I did not come by water, but overland from my own Northumbria, to
see what I could do. It's little one _can_ do with that class of native
except make them stop killing each other and themselves----'

'Why did they kill themselves?' Una asked, her chin in her hand.

'Because they were heathen. When they grew tired of life (as if they
were the only people) they would jump into the sea. They called it going
to Wotan. It wasn't want of food always--by any means. A man would tell
you that he felt grey in the heart, or a woman would say that she saw
nothing but long days in front of her; and they'd saunter away to the
mud-flats and--that would be the end of them, poor souls, unless one
headed them off! One had to run quick, but one can't allow people to lay
hands on themselves because they happen to feel grey. Yes--yess!
Extraordinary people, the South Saxons. Disheartening, sometimes....
What does that say now?' The organ had changed tune again.

'Only a hymn for next Sunday,' said Una. '"The Church's One Foundation."
Go on, please, about running over the mud. I should like to have seen
you.'

'I dare say you would, and I really _could_ run in those days.
Ethelwalch the king gave me some five or six muddy parishes by the sea,
and the first time my good Eddi and I rode there we saw a man slouching
along the slob, among the seals at Manhood End. My good Eddi disliked
seals--but he swallowed his objections and ran like a hare.'

'Why?' said Dan.

'For the same reason that I did. We thought it was one of our people
going to drown himself. As a matter of fact, Eddi and I were nearly
drowned in the pools before we overtook him. To cut a long story short,
we found ourselves very muddy, very breathless, being quietly made fun
of in good Latin by a very well-spoken person. No--he'd no idea of going
to Wota