22 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



-Many years ago, reading the IJgils Saga for another purpose, I 

 lighted upon a passage which appears to me to explain the real nature 

 of the Lignum Conteyisionis. I quote it here : — Egillus et sodales ibi 

 rapuere omnem rem, quae ipsis sub manus cadebat. Deinde ad navem 

 suam evecti, vento apogeo in brevi tempore orto, ad velificandum se 

 compararunt ; postquam autem ad id erant parati, Egillus in insulam 

 egressus, sumta in manum pertica corylina, in petrae alicujus, quae 

 continentem introrsum spectabat, prominentiam processit ; tum caput 

 equinum cepit, imposuitque perticae, atque adhibita verborum formula 

 sic effatus est: "Hie ego perticam execrationis [nidstaung] erigo ; 

 atque hanc execrationem in Eiricum regem et Gunhilldam reginam 

 intendo." Tum caput equinum continenti introrsum obvertens pergit : 

 '* Dirigo hanc execrationem in genios hujus terrae indigetes, ut cuncti 

 errantes vagentur, et nemo suum domicilium adsequatur aut reperiat, 

 priusquam terra expulerunt Eiricum regem et Gunhilldam. Deinde 

 perticam in rupturam petrae immissam defixit, et capite equi ad 

 terram converso, literas incidit perticae, quae loquebantur istam im- 

 precationis formulam integram. His confectis navem inscendit." — 

 {Egih Saga, ch. 60, pp, 388-390). 



The same practice is also described in Vatnsdaela Saga, ch. 34 ; 

 Landndma, iv., ch. 4 ; Reyhdaela Saga, ch. 25. In Cleasby and 

 Vigfusson's excellent Icelandic dictionary we find abundant references 

 and quotations illustrating the meaning of nid and the various uses of 

 the nidstong. That word corresponds almost exactly with the 

 Lignum Contensionis. Stong, like the German stange and English 

 stang, meaning a pole or stake, answers to the Lignum; and n'ld, 

 meaning execration, contumely, derision, reproach, abuse, insult, has 

 a signification nearly related to contention, dispute, quarrel. 



It must also be noticed that nith was the legal term used in the 

 Brehon Law to denote duel. See Senchas Mor, vol. i., p. 122, line 9, 

 arm fri nith, a weapon for battle ; and p. 126, line 15 ; and an article 

 by M. d'Arbois de Jubainville, "Des attributions judiciaires de 

 I'autorite publique chez les Celtes" {Revue Celtique, January, 1886) 

 in which he discusses the whole of the procedure in the case of duels. 



With the Lignum Contensionis Father Hogan compares the phrase 

 lignum mittere occurring in another passage of Tirechan : — " Sed 

 familiam ejus non dilegunt quod i. non licet jurare contra eum, ii. et 

 super eum, iii. et de eo, iiii. et non lignum licet contra eum mitti, 

 quia ipsius sunt omnia primitiuae ecclesiae Hiberniae, sed juratur a 

 se omne quod juratur." — {Book of Armagh, fol. 11. a.h.) 



There, however, lignum has, I think, a different signification, 



