A third, and for our present purpose the most important, mode of vengeance is that which we may describe as the ‘tribal wergeld’ mode. It consists essentially of a compensation, in the form of goods or valuables, which is paid by the relatives of the slayer to the relatives of the slain. It differs from our first-mentioned mode of vengeance in the fact that satisfaction is paid in ‘money,’ not in blood, and in the fact that payment is fixed by custom or law and is not of an indefinite duration. It differs from the second mode in this, that the ideal penalty is not death, but compensation or exile, and that the punishment is collective rather than personal. The system is found only in tribal communities, where the life of the individual is subordinated to that of the group, and where property is frequently possessed and enjoyed in common. It is, of course, true that all tribal societies do not adopt this system, whether because temperament and environment foster a blood-lust that money cannot appease, or because a religious law has been superimposed upon the clans, or because a feudal or highly centralised government has become strong enough to resist the demands of the clansmen for compensation. But, apart from these special circumstances, tribal communities tend to adopt the ‘wergeld’ system of vengeance. We have the most ample evidence[2] of its operation in pre-medieval Germany, and Wales, and Ireland and Scotland, amongst the Anglo-Saxons, the Franks, the Wisigoths and the Vikings. We can see in ancient Israel an instance of a land which has evolved beyond the wergeld stage. There came a time when a theocratic legislator was sufficiently powerful to attack the privileges of the clans, and to cry out, as with a divine voice, ‘Ye shall not take satisfaction for the life of a man that is guilty of blood.’[3] We hope to make it clear that it was this system which prevailed amongst the earliest inhabitants of Greek lands, who may, for convenience, be described as Pelasgians. Owing to the great number of the individuals who were liable to make or to receive compensation, and also because of the social organisation of the tribes, we are not surprised to find that a regular tribunal was frequently appealed to, and that a trial, concerned more often with the question of payment than with the question of guilt, was one of the most common events of interest in the life of Pelasgian tribesmen. No wonder is it then that the poet Homer gives a description of such a scene[4] and tells us that Hephaestus had engraved it on the famous Shield of Achilles. This is the earliest reference to a trial of any kind in all European literature.