midday
When day broke , Beric 's command , with the women who had arrived , set off laden with as much grain in baskets or cloths as they could carry , and driving the cattle and pigs before them . The country soon became swampy , but their guide knew the ground well , and by a winding path led them dry footed through the bushes , though they could see water among the roots and grass on either side of them . They had , however , great difficulty with the cattle and pigs , but after several attempts to break away , and being nearly lost in the swamps , from which many of them had to be dragged out by sheer force , the whole reached the river . The men of the rear guard in charge of the main body of the swine and cattle did not arrive there until midday . The spot to which the guide led them was on the river flowing east and west , a mile from its junction with the main stream , as he told them that the swamps were too deep near the junction of the river for them to penetrate there . Some of the boats were already at the spot . When they reached it Aska and Beric at once began to mark out a semicircle , with a radius of some fifty yards , on the river bank .