fold over red-hot ploughshares, or plunge his arm into
boiling water, and show at the end of a fixed number of days that he
had received no harm, it was thought that the gods bore witness to his
innocency and had as it were become his compurgators when men had
failed him. It is quite possible that all or most of those who tried
the ordeal failed, but as nobody would try the ordeal who could get
compurgators, those who did not succeed must have been regarded as
persons of bad character, so that no surprise would be expressed at
their failure.

15. =Punishments.=--When a man had failed in the ordeal there was a
choice of punishments. If his offence was a slight one, a fine was
deemed sufficient. If it was a very disgraceful one, such as secret
murder, he was put to death or was degraded to slavery, in most cases
he was declared to be a 'wolf's-head'--that is to say, he was outlawed
and driven into the woods, where, as the protection of the community
was withdrawn from him, anyone might kill him without fear of
punishment.

16. =The Folk-moot.=--As the hundred-moot did justice between those
who lived in the hundred, so the folk-moot did justice between those
who lived in different hundreds, or were too important to be judged in
the hundred-moot. The folk-moot was the meeting of the whole folk or
tribe, which consisted of several hundreds. It was attended, like the
hundred-moot, by four men and the reeve from each township, and it met
twice a year, and was presided over by the chief or Ealdorman. The
folk-moot met in arms, because it was a muster as well as a council
and a court. The vote as to war and peace was taken in it, and while
the chief alone spoke, the warriors signified their assent by clashing
their swords against their shields.

17. =The Kingship.=--How many folks or tribes settled in the island it
is impossible to say, but there is little doubt that many of them soon
combined. The resistance of the Britons was desperate, and it was only
by joining together that the settlers could hope to overcome it. The
causes which produced this amalgamation of the folks produced the
king. It was necessary to find a man always ready to take the command
of the united folks, and this man was called King, a name which
signifies the man of the kinship or race at the head of which he
stood. His authority was greater than the Ealdorman's, and his
warriors were more numerous than those which the Ealdorman had led. He
must come o