5o HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



wife, or ill-treatment on the part of the husband. Women 

 who wore breeches literally and men who wore any 

 approach to women's clothing were liable to be divorced ; 

 and in Iceland, divorce on account of extreme poverty 

 after marriage was lawful. Separation was conditioned by 

 well-defined laws, which were based upon the principle that 

 the agreement must be mutual, otherwise the offending 

 party was mulcted in the loss of property. Extravagance 

 on the part of women was checked by a salutary law ; but 

 a woman who earned her own living and there were such 

 in those days had a right to please herself in such matters. 

 Polygamy was rare among the Norsemen, being confined 

 to the great chiefs, who must occasionally have found it to 

 be a doubtful privilege. 



The abandonment of children by exposure was frequently 

 practised, the causes being deformity, family discord, the 

 presence of ill-omens, or the poverty of the parents.^ The 

 Spartans similarly provided for a survival of the fittest and 

 the elimination of the unfit. The custom of " exposing " 

 children long prevailed in Lewis, and isolated instances 

 have been known in comparatively modern times. The 

 naming of a child by the Norsemen was a matter of great 

 importance, the chief object being to avoid an unlucky 

 name, and to choose one calculated to bring good fortune 

 with it. Hence the prevalence of names prefixed by that 

 of the god Thor. Fostering children was common among 

 the Norse chiefs, as it was among the Highland chiefs of 

 later days, and in both cases, fosterhood formed one of 

 the strongest possible ties. There is a striking analogy 

 between the tales in the Sagas and the traditions of the 

 Highlands, relating to the unselfish love which existed 

 between foster-brothers. Among the Norsemen, there are 

 instances of men becoming foster-brothers as the result of 

 mutual admiration for mutual prowess, the ceremony of 

 fosterhood taking the form of a pledge, accompanied by a 

 commingling of blood. 



The burial customs of the Norsemen were in some 

 respects peculiar to them. Fire was regarded as a puri- 



