fight it out.’ Thord said: ‘Can we expect much property on your ships?’ ‘Far from that,’ said Odd, ‘we have got no property this summer.’ ‘I think,’ said Thord, ‘I have nowhere met more foolish men than here, for we only fight out of pride and rivalry.’ ‘What wilt thou then?’ said Odd.” (Orvar Odd Saga, c. 9). ----- Footnote 109: Cf. a similar practice in duelling. This custom of staking and choosing the field of battle is also seen to have been practised by the Massagetæ. Tomyris sent word to Cyrus, who came to subjugate her country, and was building a bridge: “Toil no longer in making a bridge over the river, but cross over to our side while we retire three days’ march from the river; or, if you had rather receive us on your side, do you the like.” Footnote 110: Cf. also Flateyjarbok, ii., p. 188. Footnote 111: Cf. also Olaf Tryggvason, i., p. 207; (Fms.); St. Olaf (Heimskringla), c. 118. Footnote 112: Cf. also An Bogsveigi’s Saga; Orvar Odd’s Saga; Fridthjof’s Saga, c. 6. Footnote 113: In the account of this battle the word hamalt is used synonymously with svinfylking. Footnote 114: The word for the general state of peace was _Frid_. _Grid_ appears in its early meaning to have denoted a peculiar state of peace, quarter, protection, or temporary or local cessation of hostilities. Footnote 115: Bold as hawks. Footnote 116: On leaving a place it was customary to have a feast with one’s friends. It was such a feast that is here referred to. CHAPTER VIII. ROCK-TRACINGS.[117] Great antiquity of the rock-tracings—A silent history of the people—Their abundance on the Cattegat—Ships or boats, fights, warriors, horses, cattle, camels, turtles, mystic signs, etc., representing warriors with horned helmets—Similar helmets found—The bas-relief of the temple of Medinet Habou—Large size of rock-tracings—The peculiar rock-tracings of Järrestad and Simris—Peculiar bowl-shaped hollows. Among the interesting mementoes of the past which help us to get an insight into the life of the earlier inhabitants of the peninsula of Scandinavia are the “rock-tracings,”[118] which are of great antiquity, long before the Roman period, large pictures engraved on the rocks, which, like the pyramids and sphinxes of Egypt, bear witness to the unwritten history of the people.