arise from taxes on property, founded upon
an estimate which is annually made, under
the superintendance of the Reppstiorars of
the several individuals in each parish. This
estimate is conducted in a somewhat singular
way; its basis being a very ancient regulation
of property, according to the number of
ells of wadmal, the cloth of native manufacture,
which each individual possessed, or
was enabled to manufacture in the course of
the year. The term hundred, which was
formerly a division derived from the number
of ells, is now applied to other descriptions of
property. An Icelander is reckoned possessor
of an hundred, when he has two horses, a
cow, a certain number of sheep and lambs,
a fishing-boat, furnished with nets and lines,
and forty rix-dollars in specie; and it is by
this ratio that the amount of all possessions
is ascertained, and the tributes levied upon
them. One of the tributes, called the
Tuind’s, requires from every person, possessing
more than five hundreds, the annual
payment of twelve fish, or an equivalent
amounting to twenty-seven skillings, or
somewhat more than a shillinOg of EngOlish
money. This tax increases in an uniform
ratio with the increase of property; and its
produce is allotted in equal portions to the
public revenue, to the priests, to the churches,
and to the maintenance of the poor. Another
tribute¡, called the SJcattur, consisted, in
former times, of twenty ells of wadmal, but
is now commuted to money, at the rate of
four skillings and an half per ell. It is paid
to the public revenue by the owners of
farms, and by all, whose property, estimated
in hundreds, exceeds the number of individuals
composing their families. A third
tax, called the Olaf-tallur, is paid either in
fish or money; likewise in proportion to
the property of each individual*.” Besides,
however, what arises from the taxes imposed
upon the inhabitants, the king receives a
certain sum for the rental of such farms as
are his private property. Land in Iceland
comes under three divisions: such as belongs
to the king, to the church, and to the
peasants themselves. It would be interesting
to ascertain, were it possible, the present
proportion of each, but to do this with any
kind of accuracy is impracticable, from the
* Dr. Holland, in Sir G. Mackenzie's Travels in
Iceland, p. 323.