56 GUIDE TO ICELAND. and a farm for rendering a great service to his master. The chief also invariably built at his residence a temple, ‘ Hof,’ to the Scandi- navian mythological gods, placing under its foundations earth brought from the site of the temple at his old abode. He was himself priest of the temple, and performed the sacred rites. His retainers, or those who had fixed their abodes within the boundaries of his settlement, were to pay a tax to the temple—church-rates we see were an early institution—to help defray the cost of the sacrificial feasts and of keeping the temple in repair. All those who worshipped at a temple were expected to attend the chief and assist him in his quarrels with other chiefs. In return he had to adjust their quarrels, and to protect them against other chiefs and their retainers. Thus a kind of patriarchal government was early instituted, each chief being entirely independent of other chiefs; but there was no law but the sword, and might was right; therefore the later and less powerful settlers were in a manner compelled to seek the protection of one of the powerful chiefs, and show him a certain amount of allegiance, by worshipping at his temple and paying a tax for its maintenance. The chief had unlimited power of life and death- over his family and thralls; for in a word ‘ he was a priest in his own house and a king in his own home.’ He could even rear his children or not as he pleased. ‘ As soon as a child was born it was laid upon the bare ground ; and until the father came and looked at it, heard and saw that it was strong in lung and limb, lifted it in his arms, and handed it over to the women to be reared, its fate hung in the balance, and life or death depended on the sentence of its sire.’ As the island became more thickly peopled, the chief in each district would call together his neighbours to consult with them on matters of importance to the dwellers in that particular part of the island. Such a meeting was called a ‘ ping ’ (Thing), and freemen could alone attend it. The meetings were usually held in the immediate vicinity of the temple of the chief. Many of the chiefs after a time ceased to act as priests, and such appointed a relative or friend to officiate as priest in his Hof; and to these subsequently was also conceded the right to preside at the meetings of the local ping. All this time it must be borne in mind there was no written or universal law; neither was there any supreme authority, and quarrels between the members of one ping and those of another could only be settled, as the quarrels of nations are settled, by treaty or an appeal to arms. Naturally the utter absence of law and a supreme authority

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