The present or contingent possession of land by Odal-ræd was thus the foundation of every right or franchise; and in the infancy of Odal society, no Law could be made or administered, no Tax imposed or levied, and no Power assumed or exercised by King or Jarl, without the sanction of the ALTHING or _Council of Freemen_, where King, Jarl, and Bishop, Odaller and Odal-born, were all and equally THINGMEN. The ALTHING was the simple prototype of a modern Parliament, but the assembly was primary, not representative; and the Estates met and voted together as in one Chamber. Whether assembled at stated times of Jol and Vor, or summoned by King or Jarl for special causes, by passing from hand to hand the Stefn-bod or Cross, the place of solemn meeting was the great Domring of Stenness, the Thing-stod in Magnus Kirk, or the Thingholm in Tingwall-vatn, under the Presidency of the LAWMAN OF ORKNEY, or FOUD OF ZETLAND, the official Speakers of this Island Parliament. The LAWMAN was the judge appointed (in the early vigour of Odal independence) by the Thing, but afterwards by the King or Jarl, to keep the BOOK OF THE LAWS, and to pronounce and ratify the Thing-Doms or Decreets by the COMMON SEAL OF ORKNEY, of which he was the custodier. The FOUD was originally the Collector of the King’s Skatt and Mulcts, first appointed by King Sverrer on the confiscation of Zetland (1196); but his duties were afterwards assimilated, but subordinate, to those of the Lawman, and the salary of both was paid by an assessment called Thing-för-kaup. The Thing and Thing-stod were sacred both to Christian and Pagan, as a sanctuary where all forgot their feuds and met unarmed, with a security which weapons could neither win nor maintain elsewhere. Even the sentenced criminal was safe within its sacred Vebönd, and if he could win against his pursuers the race of life and death to the nearest Mör-steinn, Cross or Kirk, was presumed to have redeemed his life in sight of God and man. Much of the procedure was conducted by reference to the oath of the accused, and the Lawman’s oath, Saxter oath, Hirdman’s oath, &c., differed only in their degree of solemnity and number of compurgators. Besides the criminal penalties of death, forfeiture, or unlaw to the Crown, damages civil or criminal might be awarded, and accepted by the sufferers or their kin, with minute scrupulosity of compensation; and contempt of Court was visited by the additional infliction of a DOM-ROF. In early times, the Althing enacted the laws which it administered, authorized and apportioned taxation, and virtually held the keys of peace and war, by granting or withholding the supplies; but having once compiled a BOOK OF THE LAWS, it seems to have exercised its legislative functions but rarely, and, under the less solemn name of LÖGTHING or LAWTING, to have restricted its consultations to matters of general administration, finance, police and judicature.