The Latin word 'scamnum' had precisely this meaning, and also it was applied by the Agrimensores to a piece of land broader than its length. The 'scamnum' of the Roman 'castrum' was the strip 600 feet long and 50 to 80 feet broad--nearly the shape of the English and Bavarian 'acre'--set apart for the 'legati' and 'tribunes.' The fields in a conquered district, instead of being allotted in squares by 'centuriation,' were divided into 'scamna' and 'striga;' and the fields thus divided into pieces broader than their length were called 'agri scamnati,' while those divided into pieces longer than their breadth were called 'agri strigati.' Length was throughout reckoned from north to south; breadth from east to west. Frontinus states that the 'arva publica' in the provinces were cultivated 'more antiquo' on this method of the 'ager per strigas et per scamna divisus et assignatus,' whilst the fields of the 'coloniæ' of Roman citizens or soldiers planted in the conquered districts were 'centuriated.' See Frontinus, lib. i. p. 2, and fig. 3 in the plates, and also fig. 199; and see Rudorff's observations, ii. 290–298. The whole matter is, however, very obscure, and it is difficult to identify the 'ager scamnatus' with the Romano-German open fields. Frontinus was probably not specially acquainted with the latter. [605] The meaning of 'hub' is perhaps simply 'a holding,' from 'haben.' The term 'yard-land,' or 'gyrd-landes,' seems to be simply the holding measured out by the 'gyrd,' or rod; just as gyrd also means a 'rood.' Compare the 'vergée' of Normandy. The Roman 'pertica' was the typical rod or pole used by the Agrimensores, and on account of its use in assigning lands to the members of a colony, it is sometimes represented on medals by the side of the augurial plough. By transference, the whole area of land measured out and assigned to a colony was known to the Agrimensores as its 'pertica' (Lachmann, Frontinus, pp. 20 and 26; Hyginus, p. 117; Siculus Flaccus, p. 159; Isodorus, p. 369). The Latin 'virga,' used in later times instead of '_pertica_' for the measuring rod, followed the same law of transference with still closer likeness to the Saxon 'gyrd.' Both 'virga' and 'gyrd' = a rod and a measure. Both 'virga terræ' and 'gyrd landes' = (1) the rood, and (2) the normal holding--the virgate or yard-land. The word 'virgate,' or 'virgada,' was used in Brittany as well as in England. In the _Cartulaire de Redon_ it is, however, evidently the equivalent of the Welsh 'Randir.' See the twelve references to the word 'virgada' in the index of the _Cartulary_. [606] Du Cange, under 'Huba.' [607] Landau, p. 36. [608] _Id._ 37–8. [609] In the will of Perpetuus. Meitzen, _Ausbreitung_, &c., p. 14. [610] The practice was long continued in what was called the 'steel bow tenancy' of later times. [611] _Juris Prov. Alemann._ c. 2. Schilteri editio. [612] Otfried, v. 4, 80; ii. 14, 215. [613] Notger, Psalm xliii. 14; lxxviii. 4; lxix. 7.