And I wrestled and tore at my bonds; but they were of rawhide, and I could do nothing.
Then Harek said, breathing heavily: "No good; their arms are like steel about me." Then some came and dragged me back a little, and set me up sitting against a great stone, so I could see all that went on.

Now I counted fifty men, and there were no women that I could see anywhere.

Half of these were making a great ring with joined hands round the fire, and some piled more fuel on it--turf and branches of dwarf oak trees--and others sat round, watching the dozen or so that minded Harek.

One sat cross-legged near me, with a great pot covered tightly with skin held between his knees.
Next they set Harek on his feet, and led him to the ring round the fire.

Two of the men--and they were among the strongest of all--loosened their hands, and each gripped the scald by the wrist and yelled aloud, and at once the man beat on the great pot's cover drum-wise, and the ring of men whirled away round the fire in the wild dance whose foot beats we had heard as we came.