"Hence, as the cause of full one half our quarrels, 82 Freya with Odin shares the rites of blood;-- In this--thou seest a hidden depth of morals, But by the vulgar little understood;-- We do not roast thee in an idle frolic! But as a type mysterious and symbolic." The Hierarch motions to the priests around, 83 They bind the victim to the Statue's base, Then, to the Knight they link the wondering hound, Some three yards distant--looking face to face. "One word," said Gawaine--"ere your worships quit us, How is it meant that Freya is to eat us?" "Stranger," replied the Priest, "albeit we hold 84 Such questions idle, and perhaps profane; Yet much the wise will pardon to the bold-- When what they ask 'tis easy to explain-- Still typing Truth, and shaped with sacred art, We place a furnace in the statue's heart. "That furnace heated by mechanic laws 85 Which gods to priests for godlike ends permit, We lay the victim bound across the jaws, And let him slowly turn upon a spit; The jaws--(when done to what we think their liking) Close;--all is over:--The effect is striking!" At that recital, made in tone complacent, 86 The frozen Knight stared speechless and aghast, Stared on those jaws to which he was subjacent, And felt the grinders cranch on their repast. Meanwhile the Priest said--"Keep your spirits up, And ere I go, say when you'd like to sup?" "Sup!" falter'd out the melancholy Knight, 87 "Sup! pious Sir--no trouble there, I pray! Good though I grant my natural appetite, The thought of Freya's takes it all away: As for the dog--poor, unenlighten'd glutton, Blind to the future,--let him have his mutton." 'Tis night: behold the dog and man alone! 88 The man hath said his thirtieth _noster pater_, The dog has supp'd, and having pick'd his bone (The meat was salted), feels a wish for water; Puts out in vain a reconnoitring paw, Feels the cord, smells it, and begins to gnaw. Abash'd Philosophy, that dog survey! 89 Thou call'st on freemen--bah! expand thy scope; "_Aide-toi toi-meme, et Dieu t'aidera!_" Doth thraldom bind thee?--gnaw thyself the rope.-- Whatever Laws, and Kings, and States may be; Wise men in earnest can be always free. By a dim lamp upon the altar stone 90 Sir Gawaine mark'd the inventive work canine; "Cords bind us both--the dog has gnaw'd his own; O Dog skoinophagous[13]--a tooth for mine!-- And both may 'scape that too-refining Goddess Who roasts to types what Nature meant for bodies."