y advances a very young man, whom you can picture to yourself
with sea-green eyes, long fair hair, and perhaps some tattooing. A chief
of the tribe is present, who without delay places gravely in the hands
of the young man a _framea_ and a buckler. Failing a sovereign ruler, it
is the father of the youth, or some relative, who undertakes this
delivery of weapons. "Such is the 'virile robe' of these people," as
Tacitus well puts it; "such is the first honor of their youth. Till then
the young man was only one in a family; he becomes by this rite a member
of the Republic. _Ante hoc domus pars videtur: mox rei publicae_. This
sword and buckler he will never abandon, for the Germans in all their
acts, whether public or private, are always armed. So, the ceremony
finished, the assembly separates, and the tribe reckons a _miles_--a
warrior--the more. That is all!"

The solemn handing of arms to the young German--such is the first germ
of chivalry which Christianity was one day to animate into life.
"_Vestigium vetus creandi equites seu milites_." It is with reason that
Sainte-Palaye comments in the very same way upon the text of the
_Germania_, and that a scholar of our own days exclaims with more than
scientific exactness, "The true origin of _miles_ is this bestowal of
arms which among the Germans marks the entry into civil life."

No other origin will support the scrutiny of the critic, and he will not
find anyone now to support the theory of Roman origin with Sainte-Marie,
or that of the Arabian origin with Beaumont. There only remains to
explain in this place the term knight (chevalier), but it is well known
to be derived from _caballus_, which primarily signifies a beast of
burden, a pack-horse, and has ended by signifying a war-horse. The
knight, also, has always preserved the name of _miles_ in the Latin
tongue of the Middle Ages, in which chivalry is always called _militia_.
Nothing can be clearer than this.

We do not intend to go further, however, without replying to two
objections, which are not without weight, and which we do not wish to
leave behind us unanswered.

In a certain number of Latin books of the Middle Ages we find, to
describe chivalry, an expression which the "Romanists" oppose
triumphantly to us, and of which the Romish origin cannot seriously be
doubted. When it is intended to signify that a knight has been created,
it is stated that the individual has been girt with the _cingulum
militare_. H