Scandinavian-Britain

262 SCANDINAVIAN BRITAINGreat Foud, to receive rents and duties in butter, oiland wadmell, and to hold Shuynd Courts for thedivision of estates among heirs of the deceased (seethe word sjaund, p. 258). They were assisted byCouncillors (Raadmen), but all householders wererequired to attend the Thing. Lawrightmen (Logrettamenn)were chosen by the Vardthing, and chargedwith the custody and application of the standardsof weight and measure (cuttell, bismar and can) bywhich dues were paid, and with the general interestsof the parish, especially at the Lawthing, when theLawrightman was the assessor of the Foud, actingin the interests of the people. The conversion ofwith his duties.payments from kind to coin did away" "Skathald Mr. Goudie considers as commonpasture-land for which skat was paid Mr. A. W.;Johnston says that it formerly meant the township,including hagi or pasture. Ranselmen (from ransel, tosearch a house for stolen goods, apparently equivalentto the Icelandic rannsaka, whence our " ransack ")were appointed to inquire into cases of theft, scandal,dispute, misbehaviour, absence from church, trespass,dilapidation, vagrancy, witchcraft and contraventionof laws about sheep and sheep-dogs.They came tobe practically analogous to the old parish constable,and appointments were made down to 1836, and inFair Isle even so late as 1869.A few survivals of old Norse lifemay be noticed.The horizontal waterrmll was not a turbine, but anordinary wheel, placed with axis vertical, and driven bya jet running through a trough and acting on one side