CUSTOMARY LAW.

The evidence of Saxo to archaic law and customary institutions is pretty
much (as we should expect) that to be drawn from the Icelandic Sagas,
and even from the later Icelandic rimur and Scandinavian kaempe-viser.
But it helps to complete the picture of the older stage of North
Teutonic Law, which we are able to piece together out of our various
sources, English, Icelandic, and Scandinavian. In the twilight of Yore
every glowworm is a helper to the searcher.

There are a few MAXIMS of various times, but all seemingly drawn from
custom cited or implied by Saxo as authoritative:--

"It is disgraceful to be ruled by a woman."--The great men of Teutonic
nations held to this maxim. There is no Boudicea or Maidhbh in our own
annals till after the accession of the Tudors, when Great Eliza rivals
her elder kins-women's glories. Though Tacitus expressly notices one
tribe or confederacy, the Sitones, within the compass of his Germania,
ruled by a woman, as an exceptional case, it was contrary to the feeling
of mediaeval Christendom for a woman to be emperor; it was not till late
in the Middle Ages that Spain saw a queen regnant, and France has never
yet allowed such rule. It was not till long after Saxo that the great
queen of the North, Margaret, wielded a wider sway than that rejected by
Gustavus' wayward daughter.

"The suitor ought to urge his own suit."--This, an axiom of the most
archaic law, gets evaded bit by bit till the professional advocate takes
the place of the plaintiff. "Njal's Saga", in its legal scenes, shows