sri-:<:i.\i. rs/-;x OF /.T.VAX. 



had little strength. Her father and mother were very glad 

 (Evil's Saga, e. T."). 



When persons were deaf, they eonuuunieated with others by \ 

 means of nines. 



" Thorkel told his sister Orny that the steersman had come 

 to his house, saying : ' L wish, kinswoman, that tlion shouldst 

 serve 1 him during the winter, for most other men have 

 enough to do.' Urny carved runes on a wood-stick, for she 

 could not speak, and Thorkel took it and read. The wood- 

 stick told this: 'I do not like to undertake to serve the 

 steersman, for my mind tells me that, it' 1 do, much evil 

 will come of it.' He became angry because his sister declined, 

 so that when she saw it she consented to serve Ivar, and con- 

 tinued to do so during the winter" (Thorstein Uxafot, Forn- 

 manna Sogur. 110). 



Runes traced on sticks (krfli), which were sometimes used, 

 did not offer proper security against falsification, unless per- 

 sonal runes were used, whicli however were known only to a 

 very limited number. 



An Icelandic settler named Gris, who had gone on a journey 

 to Norway, was going back to Iceland from Nidaros (Thrond- 

 hjem). 



" A woman came to him with two children, and asked him 

 to take them with him. He asked : 'What have they to do 

 there?' She said that their uncle Thorstein Svorf lived in the 

 district where Gris had a boer, and that her name was Thorarna. 

 Gris said : ' I will not do that without some evidence.' Then 

 she gave him from under her cloak a stick on which were inany 

 words known to Thorstein. Gris said : ' Thou wilt think me 

 greedy tor property.' She asked : ' Ask as much as thou wilt ? ' 

 He answered: 'Four hundreds in very good silver, and thou 

 must follow with the children.' ' It is not possil >le for me to follow 

 them,' she said, " but I will pay what thou askest.' She told 

 him the name of the boy Klaufi, and of the girl Sigrid. Gris 

 added : 'How hast thou become so wretched, thou who art of 

 such good kin ?' She replied : ' I was taken in war by Siuvkoll 

 Ljotsson, who is the father of these children ; after which he 

 drove me away against my will.' 



" Gris had a. favourable wind after he had taken these children 



1 Take rare i>C Ills clothes, &c. 



