Year of the Boar, Sixth Month, Day 31.

I do not know quite how I managed it, but I staggered into what I thought was a camp of fishing people late last night. It took every ounce of strength I had to keep walking, but I knew that if I did not, I was likely to die anyway. And by the time I arrived amongst the people I had spotted while I was sitting at the spring I was so very tired; my skin was so dry that it had cracked and my lips were blistered. I can only imagine what a sight I must have been as I stumbled over the small ridge that separated me from their camp and burbled incoherently that I needed water. Despite that, the people I met were not hostile although I cannot say they are particularly friendly either but that is simply because I do not understand a word they are saying... When I have recovered sufficiently, I shall find out more, and were I less tired, I would be jumping up and down with excitement; the people I have found here are foreign! Actually from another Kingdom; well, either that, or they are a strange group that have somehow remained hidden from the Censuses since time began. Either way, they speak a different language than any dialect I have heard across the Kingdom, and they look most interesting... the women wear their hair in a rather bizarre arrangement, which looks to be braided and then bound across the top of their heads with various pins stuck in it or ribbons threaded through it. What is most interesting about their hair though, is the colour. A few of them do have brown hair, although it is very light, but many of them have hair which seems to be the colour of gold. Well not gold precisely, more like a field of corn. I have a strange urge to reach out and touch it to see if it is as soft as it looks. I shall refrain of course, I cannot imagine that it would be good manners! The language they speak is totally unlike the slurring, lazy sounds of those in the South of the Kingdom and faster, sharper and more aggressive sounding than even the people of the far North. Most interesting. I do not imagine that I will stay here long enough to learn it, but I suppose it might be fun to try. Other points of interest: so far, I have not seen any men around the camp and secondly, these are not fisher-people. There is no smell of fish around the tents, and I do not see any boats or nets or racks for cleaning fish, either. Well, I suppose I shall be able to find out more in the morning; for now, I need to bathe and find something more to drink.