“One summer the Scotch Jarl Finnleik staked out with hazels a battle-field for Sigurd at Skidamyri on an appointed day. Sigurd went to consult his mother, who knew many things. He told her that there would be against him not less than seven to one. She replied: ‘I would have raised thee in my wool chest if I had been certain that thou wouldst live for ever. Better is it to die with honour, than to live in shame. Take this _merki_ (standard), which I have made with my best skill, and which I believe will be victorious for those before whom it is carried, but deadly to him who carries it.’ The standard was made with great hard-work and renowned skill. It was in the shape of a raven, and when the wind blew on it it seemed as if the raven spread his wings. Sigurd Jarl became very angry at his mother’s words, and gave the Orkney islanders their odals to help him; he went against Finnleik Jarl at Skidamyri, and both arrayed their men. When the fight began, the Scots slew the standard-bearer of Sigurd Jarl; he appointed another to carry it, but after a while he fell; three standard-bearers were slain, but the Jarl was victorious” (Flateyjarbók, vol. i.). _War booty._—The regulations about the spoils, which were very strict, were divided into shares by lot or choice. It was the custom after the battle, before the division took place, to carry the plunder to a pole fixed in the ground, where it was counted and valued. “Then the king (Sverrir) lay at Höfudey; he had the booty carried up on a plain in the south of the island, and divided into four parts. Then a Husthing (house thing) was summoned by blowing horns, and he spoke to his men. Thereupon he made them go under a pole (stöng); it was scored (i.e., an incision was made for every twenty men) to show how many men he had; they were more than 40 hundred (4,000)” (King Sverri’s Saga, c. 136). “In the spring the foster-brothers made ready to leave home with fifteen ships; Beli steered the dragon which Slisa-Úti had owned; it was costly; its beaks were carved and much gilded. King Beli got the dragon, for it was the best thing of the booty they got from Úti, and it was their custom that Beli always got the best of what they took as booty” (Thorstein Vikingsson’s Saga, c. 21). While reading the Sagas which speak of the most ancient events, we find a great and chivalrous spirit animating the warriors, champion fought against champion when others were looking on, man was against man. It was not manly to attack a champion that was fighting with another. We have several examples of men challenging to fight with an equal number of ships. It is only in the later part of the pagan era that this high-minded spirit disappears.