person who threw the thing was not known, but the people knew, and were in possession of, the object which killed the man, that object was brought to trial at the court of the Prytaneum.[72] Plato lays down the following rule in his 'Laws':--"If any lifeless thing deprive a man of life, except in the case of a thunderbolt or other fatal dart sent from the gods,--whether a man is killed by lifeless objects falling upon him, or by his falling upon them, the nearest of kin shall appoint the nearest neighbour to be a judge, and thereby acquit himself and the whole family of guilt. And he shall cast forth the guilty thing beyond the border."[73] Teutonic law, which still recognised the principle of private revenge, treated the inanimate murderer with less ceremony.[74] According to the Laws of Alfred, when men were at work together in {262} a forest, and by misadventure one let a tree fall on another, which killed him, the tree belonged to the dead man's kinsfolk if they took it away within thirty days.[75] Later on, in England, a thing by which death was caused was "forfeited to God, that is to the King, God's Lieutenant on earth, to be distributed in works of charity for the appeasing of God's wrath."[76] This law remained in force till 1846.[77] [Footnote 62: Macrae, in _Asiatick Researches_, vii. 189 _sq._] [Footnote 63: Dawson, _Australian Aborigines_, p. 53.] [Footnote 64: Robertson, _History of America_, i. 351 _sq._] [Footnote 65: Im Thurn, _op. cit._ p. 354.] [Footnote 66: Oldenberg, _Religion des Veda_, p. 518.] [Footnote 67: Herodotus, vii. 35.] [Footnote 68: _Ibid._ i. 190.] [Footnote 69: Pausanias, vi. 11. 6. _Cf._ _ibid._ v. 27. 10.] [Footnote 70: Frazer, _Pausanias_, ii. 371.] [Footnote 71: Aristotle, _De republica Atheniensium_, 57. Pausanias, i. 28. 10.] [Footnote 72: Demosthenes, _Contra Aristocratem_, 76, p. 645.] [Footnote 73: Plato, _Leges_, ix. 873 _sq._] [Footnote 74: See Trummer, _Vorträge über Tortur, &c._ i. 376 _sq._ Brunner, _Forschungen_, p. 521 _sqq._] [Footnote 75: _Laws of Alfred_, ii. 13.] [Footnote 76: Coke. _Third Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England_, p. 57.] [Footnote 77: Stephen, _History of the Criminal Law of England_, iii. 78. Pollock and Maitland, _History of English Law before the Time of Edward I._ ii. 473.]