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Updated: May 12, 2025
Palka, who was a saving woman, took the money, for I heard it rattle in her hand, hung the jars about my shoulders, and gave Martina the meat and corn in a basket. The flat cakes, however, she carried herself on a wooden trencher, because, as she said, she feared lest we should break them and anger the ghosts, who liked their food to be well served.
By degrees we grew friendly with Palka, a pleasant, bustling woman of good birth, who loved to hear of the outside world. Moreover, she was very shrewd, and soon began to suspect that we were more than mere wandering players. Pretending to be weak and ill, I did not go out much, but followed her about the house while she was working, talking to her on many matters.
Also we pointed out that the jars of water and milk were heavy, and, as it happened, there was no one from the hamlet to help to carry them this night. Having weighed these facts, Palka changed her mind. "Well," she said, "it is true that I grow fat, and after labouring all day at this and that have no desire to bear burdens like an ass.
All of these things, Hodur, I thought strange, seeing that I know you to be nothing but a poor blind beggar who gains his bread by his skill upon the harp." "There are beggars who were not always beggars, Palka," I said slowly. "Quite so, Hodur, and there are great men and rich who sometimes appear to be beggars, and many other things.
But why do folk fear to visit those tombs of which you speak, Palka?" "Why? Because they are haunted, that is all, and even the bravest dread the sight of a ghost. How could they be otherwise than haunted, seeing that yonder valley is sown with the mighty dead like a field with corn?" "Yet the dead sleep quietly enough, Palka."
Twice a week we pay it, setting food and milk and water upon a certain stone near to the mouth of the valley." "Then what happens, Palka?" "Nothing, except that the offering is taken." "By beggar folk, or perchance by wild creatures!" "Would beggar folk dare to enter that place of death?" she answered with contempt.
"Had she aught upon her head, Palka?" "Yes, a band of gold or a crown set upon her hair, and about her neck what seemed to be a necklace of green and gold, for the moonlight flashed upon it. It was much such a necklace as you wear beneath your robe, Hodur." "And pray how do you know what I wear, Palka?" I asked. "By means of what you lack, poor man, the eyes in my head.
"Well," she said when I had finished, "you should give thanks to God, Olaf, since without doubt this ghost is the lady Heliodore. So should Jodd," I heard her add beneath her breath, for in my blindness my ears had grown very quick. Martina and I had made a plan. Palka, after much coaxing, took us with her one evening when she went to place the accustomed offerings in the Valley of the Dead.
The end of it was that after some chaffering, for we dared not show that we had much money, a bargain was struck between us and this good woman, who was named Palka.
"Truly you two should give thanks to God," she said, "Who has brought you together again in so wondrous a fashion, as I do on your behalf from the bottom of my heart. Yet you are still hemmed round by dangers many and great. What now, Olaf? Will you become a ghost also and dwell here in the tomb with Heliodore; and if so, what tale shall I tell to Palka and the rest?" "Not so," I answered.
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