Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/130

 122 CHRONICLE OF THE saga vit. for an old swine he paid a sucking pig ; and for a mark of stamped gold only a half mark, and for the other half mark nothing but clay and dirt ; and moreover threatened, in the most violent way, the people whom he forced to receive such goods in pay- ment. Now, sire, what is your judgment ? " The king replies, " He shall pay the full equivalent whom the judgment ordered to do so, and that faithfully; and further, three-fold to his king: and if payment be not made within a year and a day, he shall be cut oif from all his property, his goods con- fiscated, and half go to the king's house, and half to the other party." Emund took witnesses to this judgment* among the most considerable of the men who were present, according to the laws which were held in the Upsal Thing. He then saluted the king, and went his way ; and other men brought their cases before the king, and he sat late in the day upon the cases of the peo- ple. Now when the king came to table, he asked where Lagman Emund was. It was answered, he was home at his lodgings. " Then," said the kinu', " go after him, and tell him to be my guest to-day." Thereafter the dishes were borne in ; then came the musicians with harps, fiddles, and musical instru- ments ; and lastly, the cup-bearers. The king was particularly merry, and had many great people at table with him, so that he thought little of Emund. The king drank the whole day, and slept all the night after ; but in the morning the king awoke, and recol- lected what Emund had said the day before: and when he had put on his clothes, he let his wise men be summoned to him; for he had always twelve of the wisest men who sat in judgment with him, and Is the ceremony of taking witness by a token, or some solemn act, as of delivery of a piece of money (still used in Scotland), of feudal or of udal origin ?