44:4 SUPERS TITIONS. WITCHCIiAFT. 



to creep back under the guard.' Kormak said : ' Many things 

 do you the wizards use ? ' Skeggi replied : ' This, however, 

 will help thee fully.' After this, Korinak rode home and told 

 his mother what had happened ; and said that her will had 

 much power over Skeggi ; showed her the sword, and tried to 

 draw it : but it would nqt leave the scabbard. Dolla said : 

 ' Too self- willed art thou, kinsman.' Kormak put his feet on 

 the guard, and tore off the bag ; Skofnung howled at this, but 

 could not be drawn from the scabbard. 



" The time for the holmgang approached, and Kormak left 

 home with fifteen men. In the same manner Bersi rode to the 

 place with as many men. Kormak came first, and said to 

 Thorgils that he wanted to sit there alone. Kormak sat 

 down and unfastened the sword, and did not take care that the 

 sun did not shine on its guard ; he had girt himself with 

 it outside his clothes, and tried to draw it ; but did not get it 

 out until he stepped on the guard ; the small snake came, but 

 it was not handled as he should have been, and the luck of the 

 sword was changed, and it went howling out of the scabbard ' 

 (Kormak's Saga, c. 9). 



There were also garments which were supposed to be im- 

 penetrable. 



When about to leave the house of his parents, Hrolf went 

 to his mother Asa and said : 



" I want thee, mother, to show me the cloaks which Vefreyja, 

 thy foster-mother, made for my father a long time ago.' She 

 opened a large chest and answered: ' Here thou canst see them, 

 and they have decayed but little as yet.' Hrolf took them up ; 

 they were with sleeves, a hood at the top, and a covering for 

 the face ; they were wide and long ; no iron could cut them, 

 and poison could not damage them. Hrolf took two which 

 were the largest, and said : * 1 do not carry away too much 

 from the house of my father, though I take the cloaks ' 

 (Gongu Hrolf s Saga, c. 4). 



Among the kinds of witchcraft mentioned in the sagas is 

 one called sjonhverfingar (ocular delusion). 



" At Froda there was a large hall and a locked bed adjoined 

 it, as then was customary. On each side of the hall was a small 

 room ; one of them was filled with dried fish and the other with 

 flour. Meal fires were made every night in the hall as was the 

 custom. People used to sit long at the fires before they went 

 to their meal. When the gravediggers came home that night. 



