The scattering of the strips composing a _yard-land_ or _hub_, over the open fields should also be once more mentioned in comparing the two. It was not [p393] confined to the 'yard-land' or 'hub.' It arose, as we have seen, in Wales, from the practice of joint ploughing, and was the result of the method of dividing the joint produce, probably elsewhere also, under the tribal system. It is the method of securing a fair division of common land in Scotland and Ireland and Palestine to this day, no less than under the English and German three-field system. And the remarkable passage from Siculus Flaccus has been quoted, which so clearly describes a similar scattered ownership, resulting probably from joint agriculture carried on by '_vicini_,' as often to be met with in his time on Roman ground. This passage proves that the Roman holding (like the Saxon _yard-land_ and the German _hub_) might be composed of a bundle of scattered pieces; but this scattering was too widely spread from India to Ireland for it to be, in any sense, distinctively Roman. It perhaps resulted, as we have seen, from the heaviness of the soil or the clumsiness of the plough, and the necessity of co-operation between free or semi-servile tenants, in order to produce a plough team of the requisite strength according to the custom of the country; and this necessity probably arose most often in the provinces north of the Alps. «The single succession to the 'hub' and 'yard-land.'» Another point distinctive of the 'yard-land' and the 'hub' was the absence of division among heirs, the single succession, the indivisibility of the bundle of scattered strips in the holding. And this finds its nearest likeness perhaps, as we have seen, in the probably single succession of the semi-servile holder, or mere 'usufructuarius' under Roman law, and especially under the semi-military rule of the border provinces. [p394] «The Saxon 'Gebur' and the High German 'Gipur.'» Lastly, before leaving the comparison between the _yard-land_ and _hub_ it may be asked why the serf who held it in England was called a _Gebur_. The word _villanus_ of the Domesday Survey is associated with other words, such as _villicus_, _villata_, _villenage_, all connected with serfdom, and all traceable through Romance dialects to the Roman '_villa_.' But the Anglo-Saxon word was '_Gebur_.' It was the _Geburs_ who were holders of yard-lands. We trace this word _Gebur_ in High German dialects. We find it in use in the High German translation of the laws of the Alamanni, called the '_Speculi Suevici_,' where free men are divided into three classes:-- (1) The '_semperfrien_' = lords with vassals under them. (2) The '_mittlerfrien_' = the men or vassals of the lords. (3) The '_geburen_' = _liberi incolæ_, or 'fri-lant-sæzzen' [_i.e._ not slaves].[611]