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228 EELIGION OF THE NOKTHMEN.
and unanimously agreed to make vows in order to
obtain a better state of weather. Lj6t thought they
ought to promise gifts to the temple, and to let the
new-born infants be exposed and kill off the old peo-
ple. But AskeU, a pious chieftain, raised objections
to this proposition. It would be better, said he, for
them to promise, in honor of the Creator, to give
property to support the aged and bring up the chil-
dren. Askell's humane counsel was also followed.*
Prayers were for the most part connected with the
sacrifices, and it was believed that they must be ut-
tered with great precision and care, wherefore the
people mostly confined themselves to certain formu-
las which were composed by the priests most deeply
initiated into the mysteries of Keligion.f "When
they wished to pray right zealously, they cast them-
selves down with the face upon the ground before
the image of the God.
Purifications were also among the sacred rites
of the IsTorthmen's worship, as we have seen in the
above reference to the sacred Helgafell in Iceland,
which no person could look upon before he had
washed himself.:]: Not^only water, but also fire, was
hence the custom,
esteemed a means of purification ;
at the sacrificial feasts, of bearing the filled horns
around or between the fires before they emptied
them. Fire was regarded with veneration, and the
people consecrated landed property and appro-
priated it to themselves by passing around it with
* Vemundar S. 1, in fslendinga Sogur II., p. 248.
t The O. Edda: HSvamil 145-146.
t Chap. XX.