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BOOK IV
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75
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comes
to a very narrow point to the east. The shore bends a little to the
north toward the peninsula which faces the west and extends thirty-two
miles from Brusta to Lochsteda. Amber is cast on the shore of the
peninsula, especially around Brusta. Sometimes it is driven farther to
the east by western winds, even to the shore of the country of the Curi
and beyond. A portion of this adjacent country is under the rule of
the Prince of Livonia. In the same manner, an eastern wind will drive
it to the west, and during northern storms it is thrown on the shore
near the promontory of Friesland which extends as a narrow strip from
the right side of the Vistula toward the peninsula. These same winds
cast amber on the shores of Germany today, as always, at a place once
inhabited by the Gotthones and Suebi, a small peninsula on which the
towns of Puceca and Hela are situated, and along the shores of
Pomerania. Almost all of these localities are near the mouth of the
Vistula. Amber is found abundantly in Sudavia, in small quantities in
Livonia and in smaller quantities in other places. Although the Germans
rule all of these places which extend as far as the Narva river that
separates Germany from Muscovy, the older Prussians, the Sudini, Curi
and others, use a language which Cornelius Tacitus says is more closely
related to that of the Britains than to ours. Many Greek words have
been intermixed with it but these are used in such an untutored
fashion that one cannot understand them unless one listens very
carefully. There are about thirty villages of the Sudini who live on
that portion of the peninsula near Brusta and these people today, as in
the most ancient times, gather amber in small nets in the same manner
as they catch fish. When they were freemen and had their own laws they
gathered amber of their own free will but now as slaves under the alien
laws of the Germans they, having been handed over to the holy military
class, are ruled by them and are driven to their work by commands.
Practical experience has taught these people the best method for
collecting this mineral and this knowledge has been passed down from
hand to hand as they say.
When
Favonius, Corus or Trascias is shaken by storms at sea all the people
of Sudini rush eagerly from their villages, at night as well as during
the day, to the beach upon which the waves are driven by the winds. The
men bring with them their nets woven from linen cord and fastened to
the ends of long poles with two prongs. When spread out these nets are
as long as a man's arm. The women act as helpers. When the wind dies
down but with the sea still running high the men, completely naked, run
into the sea in the wake of each wave and gather in their nets the
amber which has been carried along the bottom. At the same time they
pull up the plants, not unlike penny-royal, that grow on the bottom.
They collect the amber and any plants as quickly as possible and when
the next wave comes in they run for the beach where the wives empty the
debris from the net and remove the seaweed and other materials. If they
have children they help also. During the winter months of the year the
wife warms the
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