Punishments by stripes, by imprisonment, or by cruel or degrading methods, there are none. The person of a freeman is sacred, 'Vincire et verberare nefas,' as Tacitus said of these Germans 600 years before. The offences absolutely punishable by death seem to be, treason against the king's life; cowardice in battle; concealment of robbers; mutinies and attempts to escape out of the realm; and therefore (under the then military organization) to escape from the duty of every freeman, to bear arms in defence of the land. More than a hundred of these laws define the different fines, or 'weregelds,' by which each offence is to be compounded for, from 900 solidi aurei, gold pieces, for a murder, downwards to the smallest breach of the peace. Each limb has its special price. For the loss of an eye, half the price of the whole man is to be paid. A front tooth is worth 16s., solidi aurei; their loss being a disfigurement; but a back tooth is worth only 8s. A slave's tooth, on the other hand, is worth but 4s.; and in every case, the weregeld of a slave is much less than that of a freeman. The sacredness of the household, and the strong sense of the individual rights of property, are to be remarked. One found in a 'court,' courtledge (or homestead), by night (as we say in old English), may be killed. You know, I dare say, that in many Teutonic and Scandinavian nations the principle that a man's house is his castle was so strongly held that men were not allowed to enter a condemned man's house to carry him off to execution; but if he would not come out, could only burn the house over his head. Shooting, or throwing a lance into any man's homestead, costs 20s. 'Oberos,' or 'curtis ruptura,' that is, making violent entry into a man's homestead, costs 20s. also. Nay, merely to fetch your own goods out of another man's house secretly, and without asking leave, was likewise punished as oberos. So of personal honour. 'Schelte' or insult, for instance, to call a man arga, i.e. a lazy loon, is a serious offence. If the defendant will confess that he said it in a passion, and will take oath that he never knew the plaintiff to be arga, he must still pay 12_s._; but if he will stand to his word, then he must fight it out by duel, sub uno scuto. The person, for the same reason, was sacred. If a man had lain in wait for a freeman, 'cum virtute et solatio,' with valour and comfort, i.e. with armed men to back him, and had found him standing or walking simply, and had shamefully held him, or 'battiderit,' committed assault and battery on him, he must pay half the man's weregeld; the 'turpiter et ridiculum' being considered for a freeman as half as bad as death. Here you find in private life, as well as in public, the vincire et verberare nefas.