THE NORSE OCCUPATION. 47 



important of all. As its name denotes, it was an assembly 

 of all the freemen met together at stated intervals for 

 deliberative, legislative, and judicial purposes. At the 

 Al-Thing, only the land-owning boendr had a right to 

 be heard, but the voting was equal ; one man one vote, 

 rather than one value one vote, was the principle that 

 prevailed. 



Originally, the A I- Thing enacted and administered the 

 laws, and regulated taxation ; in the latter respect, by 

 voting or withholding supplies, it occupied an analogous 

 position to that of the British House of Commons, and 

 its power in determining peace or war was by this means 

 paramount. But its legislative functions were subsequently 

 rendered to a large extent unnecessary by the compilation 

 of a Book of the Laws, and in later times, its duties were 

 mainly restricted to matters of finance, administration, and 

 justice. The name Al-Thing itself seems to have given 

 place to the less imposing one of Log (or Law) Thing. 

 The people were summoned to the Things and to war by 

 an arrow, and subsequently by a cross, and were accom- 

 modated in booths (whence the Hebridean " bothies "). 



Christianity was legally established in Iceland in the 

 year 1000 A.D., but long before that date the Norsemen 

 in the Outer Hebrides had become Christians, though 

 there is evidence to show that the change of form was 

 frequently unaccompanied by a change of belief. The 

 Christianity of the converted Norsemen was at first a 

 curious amalgam : they professed the new faith but clung 

 to their pagan superstitions. They were good Christians 

 when everything was going well, but in times of danger, 

 especially at sea, they invoked the aid of Thor. The 

 Christian priests sought to engraft their religion on the 

 old beliefs, trusting in the efficacy of the former to destroy, 

 in course of time, the traces of Paganism which remained. 

 Curious relics of this grafting process are seen in the princi- 

 pal Christian festivals, the names of the days of the week, 

 and in other forms. And some of the superstitions of the 

 Northmen, such as the belief in witchcraft, the working of 



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