also confirm it as an ancient custom.[94]

Of the third incident in the tale, the living of the father with his
children, Mr. Campbell says this points to the old Highland cluster of
houses and to the farm worked by several families in common,[95] and I
think we have here the explanation why the father in Scotland did not
have his "dower-house," as he did in Scandinavia and in Spiti.

We next come to the fourth incident, the attempted killing of the old
father. Now, from some of the earliest accounts of travels in Britain,
we know that the death of the aged by violence was a signal element of
the native 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 episode of the story, remains of customs which
once existed in the North, Mr. Elton affords proof, both from
saga-history and from the practice of later times, when "the Swedes
and Pomeranians killed their old people in the way which was indicated
by the passage quoted above."[96] 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;[97] 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."[98]

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. Thorns once thought it might be
identified with Malleus, the name of the Devil.[99] Nork has attempted
with more reason to identify it with the hammer of Thor.[100] But the
real identification is closer than this. Thus, it is connected with
the Valhalla practices, already noted, by the fact that if an old
Norseman becomes too frail to travel to the cliff, in order to throw
himself over, his kinsman would save him the disgrace of dying "like a
cow in the straw," and would beat him to death with the family
club.[101]