I will send a copy of this book to every bishopric in my kingdom, and on each copy there shall be a clasp worth fifty mancuses.[289] And I command in God's name that no man take the clasp from the book, or the book from the minster.[290] It is uncertain how long there may be such learned bishops as, thanks be to God, there now are almost everywhere; therefore, I wish these copies always to remain in their places, unless the bishop desires to take them with him, or they be loaned out anywhere, or any one wishes to make a copy of them. 32. Alfred's Laws Here are a few characteristic laws included by Alfred in the code which he drew up on the basis of old customs and the laws of some of the earlier Saxon kings. On the nature of the law of the early Germanic peoples, see p. 59. Source--Text in Benjamin Thorpe, _The Ancient Laws and Institutes of England_ (London, 1840), pp. 20-44 _passim_. If any one smite his neighbor with a stone, or with his fist, and he nevertheless can go out with a staff, let him get him a physician and do his work as long as he himself cannot. If an ox gore a man or a woman, so that they die, let it be stoned, and let not its flesh be eaten. The owner shall not be liable if the ox were wont to push with its horns for two or three days before, and he knew it not; but if he knew it, and would not shut it in, and it then shall have slain a man or a woman, let it be stoned; and let the master be slain, or the person killed be paid for, as the "witan"[291] shall decree to be right. Injure ye not the widows and the stepchildren, nor hurt them anywhere; for if ye do otherwise they will cry unto me and I will hear them, and I will slay you with my sword; and I will cause that your own wives shall be widows, and your children shall be stepchildren. If a man strike out another's eye, let him pay sixty shillings, and six shillings, and six pennies, and a third part of a penny, as 'bot.'[292] If it remain in the head, and he cannot see anything with it, let one-third of the 'bot' be remitted. [Sidenote: Penalties for various crimes of violence] If a man strike out another's tooth in the front of his head, let him make 'bot' for it with eight shillings; if it be the canine tooth, let four shillings be paid as 'bot.' A man's grinder is worth fifteen shillings. If the shooting finger be struck off, the 'bot' is fifteen shillings; for its nail it is four shillings. If a man maim another's hand outwardly, let twenty shillings be paid him as 'bot,' if he can be healed; if it half fly off, then shall forty shillings be paid as 'bot.' FOOTNOTES: [257] That is, Ethelred I., whom Alfred succeeded. [258] Wiltshire, on the southern coast, west of the Isle of Wight. [259] The same as the modern city of the name. [260] Mercia was one of the seven old Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It lay east of Wales.