military service; and
a traveller to foreign parts was looked on as a deserter from his liege-
lord and country.

Then follow a great number of laws, to me both amusing and instructive,
as giving us some glimpse of the country life of those Lombards in the
8th century.

Scattered in the vast woodlands and marshes lie small farms, enclosed by
ditches and posts and rails, from which if you steal a rail, you are
fined 1s., if you steal a post, 3s. There were stake fences, which you
must be careful in making, for if a horse stakes himself by leaping in,
you pay nothing; but if he does so by leaping out, you pay the price of
the horse. Moreover, you must leave no sharp stakes standing out of the
hedge; for if a man or beast wounds himself thereby in passing, you have
to pay full weregeld.

Walking over sown land, or sending a woman of your mundium to do so, in
accordance with an ancient superstition, is a severe offence; so is
injuring a vineyard, or taking more than tres uvae (bunches of grapes, I
presume) from the vine. Injuring landmarks cut on the trees (theclaturas
and signaturas) or any other boundary mark, is severely punishable either
in a slave, or in a freeman.

In the vast woods range herds of swine, and in the pastures, horses,
cared for by law; for to take a herd of swine or brood mares as pledge,
without the king's leave, is punishable by death, or a fine of 900_s._
Oxen or horses used to the yoke can be taken as pledge; but only by leave
of the king, or of the schuldhais (local magistrate), on proof that the
debtor has no other property; for by them he gets his living. If,
however, you find pigs routing in your enclosure, you may kill one, under
certain restrictions, but not the 'sornpair,' sounder boar, who 'battit
et vincit' all the other boars in the sounder (old English for herd).

Rival swineherds, as is to be supposed, 'battidunt inter se,' and
'scandalum faciunt,' often enough. Whereon the law advises them to fight
it out, and then settle the damage between them.

Horses are cared for. To ride another man's horse costs 2s.; to dock or
crop him, eight-fold the damage; and so on of hurting another man's
horse. Moreover, if your neighbour's dog flies at you, you may hit him
with a stick or little sword, and kill him, but if you throw a stone
after him and kill him, you being then out of danger, you must give the
master a new dog.

Then there are quaint laws about hunting; and damage caused b