ic gathering of the Althing. What occurred in Iceland occurred
also in Man. The King with his Keys and his clergy gathered in the
chapel. Thence they passed in procession to the law-rock. On the top
round of the Tynwald the King sat on a chair and faced to the east. His
sword was held before him, point upwards. His barons and beneficed men,
his deemsters, knights, esquires, coroners, and yeomen, stood on the
lower steps of the mount. On the grass plot beyond the people were
gathered in crowds. Then the work of the day began. The coroners
proclaimed a warning. No man should make disturbance at Tynwald on pain
of death. Then the Acts of Tynwald were read or recited aloud by the
deemsters; first in the language of the laws, and next in the language
of the people. After other formalities the procession of the King
returned to the chapel, where the laws were signed and attested, and so
the annual Tynwald ended.

Now this primitive ceremonial, begun by King Orry early in the tenth
century, is observed to this day. On Midsummer-day of this year of grace
a ceremony similar in all its essentials will be observed by the present
Governor, his Keys, clergy, deemsters, coroners, and people, on or near
the same spot. It is the old Icelandic ordinance, but it has gone
from Iceland. The year 1800 saw the last of it on the lava law-rock of
Thingvellir. It is gone from every other Norse kingdom founded by the
old sea-rovers among the Western Isles. Manxmen alone have held on to
it. Shall we also let it go? Shall we laugh at it as a bit of mummery
that is useless in an age of books and newspapers, and foolish and
pompous in days of frock-coats and chimney-pot hats? I think not. We
cannot afford to lose it. Remember, it is the last visible sign of our
independence as a nation. It is our hand-grasp with the past. Our little
nation is the only Norse nation now on earth that can shake hands with
the days of the Sagas, and the Sea-Kings. Then let him who will laugh at
our primitive ceremonial. It is the badge of our ancient liberty, and we
need not envy the man who can look on it unmoved.

THE LOST SAGA

Of King Orry himself we learn very little. He was not only the first of
our kings, but also the greatest. We may be sure of that; first, by what
we know; and next, by what we do not know. He was a conqueror, and yet
we do not learn that he ever attempted to curtail the liberties of his
subjects. He found us free men, and did not try to mak