_Never did he_, etc. Compare what is said of Hˆgni's sword in _Sk·ldskaparm·l_, ch. 49. _Sams¯._ The fight at Sams¯ is described in another MS. of this saga (which is translated in the appendix to Part I, p. 145 ff. above and which contains also the _Death-song of Hjalmar_), as well as in the _Saga of ÷rvar Odd_, ch. 14, and in Saxo Grammaticus, _Dan. Hist._, p. 205. The Island of Sams¯ is situated half way between Jutland and SjÊlland. IV. _Exposing the child_, etc. For the custom of exposing infants, especially girls, at birth, so as to cause their death, see the _Saga of Gunnlaug Ormstungu_, ch. 3, the _Saga of Finnbogi Rammi_, etc. A similar custom prevailed in Ancient Greece. Cf. Plato, _Rep._ v, 461; Aristophanes, _Clouds_, l. 530 f. _Sprinkled with water._ Sprinkling a child with water when a name was given to it appears to have been customary in heathen times. Cf. the _Saga of Harold the Fairhaired_ (_Heimskringla_), ch. 40; the _Saga of Haakon the Good_, ch. 12; the _Saga of Egil Skallagrimsson_, ch. 31; _Vˆlsunga Saga_, ch. 13. _She grew up_, etc. Cf. the description of the later Hervˆr in ch. 10. _Here is a poem_, etc. The poem is probably earlier than the Saga in its present form. Heusler (_Eddica Minora_, p. xxi) refers it to the early part of the twelfth century. _I will give you my necklace_, etc. Note the discrepancy between the poem and the prose at this point. In the former it would seem to be Hervˆr who offers a necklace, and this is what we should expect. _Foolish is he who comes here alone_, etc. Cf. J. M. Synge, _The Aran Islands_, III: "We went up on the dun, where Michael said he had never been before after nightfall, though he lives within a stone's throw.... These people make no distinction between the natural and the supernatural." V. _Ghosts_, i.e. the animated corpses of the people buried there. _Nor other kinsman._ There is a lacuna in the text of the ms. at this point. VI. _Bring up the child_, etc. It was customary for men in high station to send their children to be brought up and educated in the houses of relatives and friends. _Reithgotaland_ is here explained as Jutland; but in ch. 9, Heithrek's subjects are described as _Gotar_, i.e. Goths; and in the latter part of the Saga, from ch. 12 onwards, the subject is clearly a war between the Goths and Huns. The earliest occurrence of the word (in the Swedish Inscription of Rˆk; cf. also _Vaf˛r˙˛nism·l_, str. 12) gives not _Reithgotaland_, but _Hraithgotaland_, which suggests that the name may be connected in some way with _Hrethgotan_, a name applied to the Goths in Anglo-Saxon poetry. VII. _Divination._ The phrase means literally, 'The casting of bits of wood at the sacrifice.' Cf. Tacitus, _Germania_, ch. 10. _Every second man._ _annanhv·rn_, apparently for _annanhvern_.