When walking the long way home they put a hat with a feather in it. To show they are off the market.
The journey took three months on horseback, six months on foot.
It was very long. The lonely nights were even longer, but the breaks in the villages made it delightful.
And the feather stayed hidden in a pocket.
Wooden raft-pilots were like river titans, strong and unconquerable.
Salesmen of the river they risked heavy and unpredictable river currents, aboard unstable wooden rafts.
They transported canvas, salt, dairy products. From the Slovak Orava region to the Black Sea.
A journey of ten days.
In the darkness, under the star spangled sky, by light of the moon.