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Great Foud, to receive rents and duties in butter, oil
and wadmell, and to hold Shuynd Courts for the
division of estates among heirs of the deceased (see
the word sjaund, p. 258). They were assisted by
Councillors (Raadmen), but all householders were
required to attend the Thing. Lawrightmen (Lögréttamenn)
were chosen by the Vardthing, and charged
with the custody and application of the standards
of weight and measure (cuttell, bismar and can) by
which dues were paid, and with the general interests
of the parish, especially at the Lawthing, when the
Lawrightman was the assessor of the Foud, acting
in the interests of the people. The conversion of
payments from kind to coin did away with his duties.
"Skathald" Mr. Goudie considers as common
pasture-land for which skat was paid ; Mr. A. W.
Johnston says that it formerly meant the township,
including hagi or pasture. Ranselmen (from ransel, to
search a house for stolen goods, apparently equivalent
to the Icelandic rannsaka, whence our "ransack ")
were appointed to inquire into cases of theft, scandal,
dispute, misbehaviour, absence from church, trespass,
dilapidation, vagrancy, witchcraft and contravention
of laws about sheep and sheep-dogs. They came to
be practically analogous to the old parish constable,
and appointments were made down to 1836, and in
Fair Isle even so late as 1869.
A few survivals of old Norse life may be noticed.
The horizontal watermill was not a turbine, but an
ordinary wheel, placed with axis vertical, and driven by
a jet running through a trough and acting on one side
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