They were dressed in gaily-coloured dresses: all of them strong and
robust; they sang their love-songs--old and sad and free--and gazed
into the gathering opalescent mists. Their songs seemed to overflow
from their hearts, and were sung to the youths who stood around them
like sombre, restive shadows, ogling and lustful, like the beasts in
their forest-haunts.
This festive coupling-time had its law.
The youths came here to choose their wives; they quarrelled and
fought, while the maidens remained listless, yielding to them in all.
The young men ogled and fought and he who triumphed first chose his
wife. Then he and she together retired from the festival.
III
Marina was twenty when she proceeded to the river-bank.
Her tall, somewhat heavy body was wonderfully moulded, with strong
muscles and snowy skin. Her chest, back, hips, and limbs were sharply
outlined; she was strong, supple, and well developed. Her round,
broad breast rose high; her hair, eye-brows and eye-lashes were thick
and dark. The pupils of her eyes were deep and liquid; her cheeks
showed a flush of red. Her lips were soft--like a beast's--large,
sensuous and rosy. She walked slowly, moving her long straight legs
evenly, and slightly swaying from her hips....
She joined the maidens on the river slope.
They were singing their mysterious, alluring and illusive songs.
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