In the earliest English codes the contract is found in its rudest form. Besides _weotuma_, various other terms appear for the bride-money. Such are _gyft_, _feoh_, _pretium_, and _pecunia pro puella data_.[849] According to a provision of Æthelberht, already referred to, "If a man buy a maiden with cattle (_ceapi_) let the bargain stand, if it be without guile; but if there be guile, let him bring her home again, and let his property be restored to him."[850] Another law of the same king declares: "If a man carry off a maiden by force, let him pay fifty shillings to the owner, and afterwards buy of the owner the latter's consent [to the marriage]. If she be betrothed to another man in money (sceat), let him make bot [to this bridegroom] with twenty shillings."[851] [849] SCHROEDER, _Güterrecht_, I, 50; _idem_, _Rechtsgeschichte_, 292; SOHM, _Trauung und Verlobung_, 15; LABOULAYE, _op. cit._, 113. [850] ÆTHELB., 77; THORPE, _Ancient Laws_, 22, 23, and n. 3; SCHMID, _Gesetze_, 8, 9. LIEBERMANN, 7, renders the first part of this passage: "Wenn jemand eine Jungfrau [zur Ehe] kauft, sei sie durch [Braut] Kaufgeld [giltig] erkauft, falls das [Rechtsgeschäft] untrügerisch ist." _Cf. Poeniten. Theod._, XVI, 29; THORPE, II, 11, or _Poeniten. Theod._, II, xii, § 34, in WASSERSCHLEBEN'S _Bussordnungen_, 216; with _Confess. Ecgb._, § 20: THORPE, II, 147; or the same in WASSERSCHLEBEN, 309. See also SCHROEDER, _Güterrecht_, I, 51 n. 9. [851] ÆTHELB., 82, 83; THORPE, I, 24, 25; LIEBERMANN, 8; _cf._ SCHROEDER, _op. cit._, 51 n. 10. Still, it will not be wise to accept too literally the apparent statements of the early codes relative to the marriage relation, for they are often brief and obscure, devoid of qualifying terms, and must be construed in the light of other facts. Thus Opet's researches seem to show clearly that in the historical period women were not so much neglected in the ancient law of inheritance as has usually been supposed.[852]