Our Legal Heritage, 5th Ed. | Page 9

pierced through, for each stab 6 shillings;
if [the wound be] above an inch [deep], a shilling; for two inches, 2;
above three, 3 shillings.
68. If a sinew be wounded, let bot be made with 3 shillings.
69. If a foot be cut off, let 50 shillings be paid.
70. If a great toe be cut off, let 10 shillings be paid.
71. For each of the other toes, let one half that for the corresponding
finger be paid.
72. If the nail of a great toe be cut off, 30 scaetts for bot; for each of the
others, make bot with 10 scaetts.
73. If a freewoman loc bore [with long hair] commit any leswe [evil
deed], let her make a bot of 30 shillings.
74. Let maiden bot [compensation for injury to an unmarried woman]
be as that of a freeman.
75. For [breach of] the mund [protection] of a widow of the best class,
of an eorl's degree, let the bot be 50 shillings; of the second, 20
shillings; of the third, 12 shillings; of the fourth, 6 shillings.

76. If a man carry off a widow not under his own protection by right,
let the mund be twofold.
77. If a man buy a maiden with cattle, let the bargain stand, if it be
without fraud; but if there be fraud, let him bring her home again, and
let his property be restored to him.
78. If she bear a live child, she shall have half the property, if the
husband die first.
79. If she wish to go away with her children, she shall have half the
property.
80. If the husband wish to keep them [the children], [she shall have the
same portion] as one child.
81. If she bear no child, her paternal kindred shall have the fioh [her
money and chattels] and the morgen gyfe [morning gift: a gift made to
the bride by her husband on the morning following the consummation
of the marriage].
82. If a man carry off a maiden by force, let him pay 50 shillings to the
owner, and afterwards buy [the object of] his will from the owner.
83. If she be betrothed to another man in money [at a bride price], let
him [who carried her off] make bot with 20 shillings.
84. If she become gaengang [pregnant], 35 shillings; and 15 shillings to
the King.
85. If a man lie with an esne's wife, her husband still living, let him
make twofold bot.
86. If one esne slay another unoffending, let him pay for him at his full
worth.
87. If an esne's eye and foot be struck out or off, let him be paid for at
his full worth.

88. If any one bind another man's esne, let him make bot with 6
shillings.
89. Let [compensation for] weg reaf [highway robbery] of a theow
[slave] be 3 shillings.
90. If a theow steal, let him make twofold bot [twice the value of the
stolen goods]."

- Judicial Procedure -
The King and his freemen would hear and decide cases of wrongful
behavior such as breach of the peace. Punishment would be given to the
offender by the community.
There were occasional meetings of "hundreds", which were 100
households, to settle widespread disputes. The chief officer was
"hundreder" or "constable". He was responsible for keeping the peace
of the hundred.
The Druid priests decided all disputes of the Celts.

- - - Chapter 2 - - -

- The Times: 600-900 -
The country was inhabited by Anglo-Saxons. The French called it
"Angleterre", which means the angle or end of the earth. It was called
"Angle land", which later became "England".
A community was usually an extended family. Its members lived a
village in which a stone church was the most prominent building. They
lived in one-room huts with walls and roofs made of wood, mud, and
straw. Hangings covered the cracks in the walls to keep the wind out.

Smoke from a fire in the middle of the room filtered out of cracks in
the roof. Grain was ground at home by rotating by hand one stone disk
on another stone disk. Some villages had a mill powered by the flow of
water or by horses. All freeholders had the duty of watch [at night] and
ward [during the day], of following the hue and cry to chase an
offender, and of taking the oath of peace. These three duties were
constant until 1195.
Farmland surrounded the villages and was farmed by the community as
a whole under the direction of a lord. There was silver, copper, iron, tin,
gold, and various types of stones from remote lead mines and quarries
in the nation. Silver pennies replaced the smaller scaetts. Freemen