Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/208

202 We next come to the fourth incident, the attempted killing of the old father. Now, from the famous Greek work of Hecatæus on the Hyperboreans, we know that the death of the aged by violence was a signal element of their customs. "They die only when they have lived long enough; for when the aged men have made good cheere and anoynted their bodies with sweet ointments they leape off a certain rocke into the sea." That we have in this the tradition of customs which once existed in the North, Mr. Elton affords proof both from saga-history and from the practice of comparatively modern times, when "the Swedes and Pomeranians killed their old people in the way which was indicated by the passage quoted above." It is the custom of many savage tribes, and the observances made use of are sometimes suggestive of the facts of the tale we are now analysing. Thus, among the Todas of the Nilgiri Hills, they place the old people in large earthen jars with some food, and leave them to perish; while among the Hottentots, Kolben says, "when persons become unable to perform the least office for themselves they are then placed in a solitary hut at a considerable distance, with a small stock of provisions within their reach, where they are left to die of hunger, or be devoured by the wild beasts."

The important bearing of these incidents of barbarous and savage life upon our subject will be seen when we pass on to our fifth incident, namely, the significant use of the mallet. Some curious explanations have been given of this. Mr. Thoms once thought it might be identified with Malleus, the name of the Devil. Nork has attempted with more reason to identify it with the hammer of Thor.