Africa to a land where naked men sold gold for iron and beads. There had
he bought much gold, and no few elephants' teeth, and thither by help of
the Wise Iron would Witta go. Witta feared nothing--except to be poor.

'"My father told me," said Witta, "that a great Shoal runs three days'
sail out from that land, and south of the shoal lies a Forest which
grows in the sea. South and east of the Forest my father came to a place
where the men hid gold in their hair; but all that country, he said, was
full of Devils who lived in trees, and tore folk limb from limb. How
think ye?"

'"Gold or no gold," said Hugh, fingering his sword, "it is a joyous
venture. Have at these Devils of thine, Witta!"

'"Venture!" said Witta sourly. "I am only a poor sea-thief. I do not set
my life adrift on a plank for joy, or the venture. Once I beach ship
again at Stavanger, and feel the wife's arms round my neck, I'll seek no
more ventures. A ship is heavier care than a wife or cattle."

'He leaped down among the rowers, chiding them for their little strength
and their great stomachs. Yet Witta was a wolf in fight, and a very fox
in cunning.

'We were driven South by a storm, and for three days and three nights he
took the stern-oar, and threddled the longship through the sea. When it
rose beyond measure he brake a pot of whale's oil upon the water, which
wonderfully smoothed it, and in that anointed patch he turned her head
to the wind and threw out oars at the end of a rope, to make, he said,
an anchor at which we lay rolling sorely, but dry. This craft his father
Guthrum had shown him. He knew, too, all the Leech-Book of Bald, who was