purpose it matters little. I could not visit Hakonstad; I could
not even stay in the land of my birth. Olaf fell."

His voice trembled a little, and he paused. Estein said nothing,
but waited for him to go on. Then in a brisker tone he continued,-
-

"For some years I sailed the west seas; but I was growing old and
my strength was wearing away with the wet work and the fighting,
so I hied me home again."

"And my father?" asked Estein. "Knew not of my coming," Atli
replied. "Of friends and kinsmen I had few left in the land, but I
had long had other thoughts for myself than the tilling of fields
and the emptying of horns at Yule. Often at night had I sat out.
[Footnote: To "sit out" was a method of reading the future
practised by sorcerers, in which the magician spent the night
under the open sky, and summoned the dead to converse with him.] I
had read the stars, and talked with divers magicians and men
skilled in the wisdom of things unseen. I wandered for long among
the Finns, I dwelt with the Lapps, and learned the lore of those
folks. Then I came to Jemtland, where cunning men were said to
live."

"Cunning!" exclaimed Estein furiously; "treacherous hounds call them."

"Cunning, indeed, they are," said the old man, "but not wise.
This Jomar here is held a spaeman by the people."

He glanced contemptuously at the sleeping figure on the floor.