The honour of women, whether in fact or merely in fame, is protected by many severe laws, among which I shall only notice, that the calling a free woman 'striga' (witch) is severely punishable. If any one does so who has the mund of her, except her father or brother, he loses his mund. On the whole, woman's condition seems inferior to man's on some points: but superior on others. e.g. A woman's weregeld--the price of her life--is 1200 solidi; while the man's is only 900. For he can defend himself, but she cannot. On the other hand, if a man kill his wife, he pays only the 1200 solidi, and loses her dowry: but if she kill him, she dies. Again. If a free man be caught thieving, up to the amount of 20 siliquae, beans, _i.e._ one gold piece--though Pope Gregory makes the solidus (aureus) 24 siliquae--he replaces the theft, and pays 80 solidi, or dies; and a slave one half, or dies. But if a free woman is taken in theft, she only replaces it; for she has suffered for her wrong-doing, and must lay it to her own shame, that she has tried to do 'operam indecentem,' a foul deed. And if an aldia or slave-woman steals, her master replaces the theft, and pays 40 solidi, minus the value of the stolen goods--and beats her afterwards, I presume, if he chooses. And now concerning slaves, who seem to have been divided into three classes. The Aldius and Aldia, masculine and feminine, who were of a higher rank than other slaves. The Aldius could marry a free woman, while the slave marrying a free woman is punishable by death; and, as experimentum crucis, if an Aldius married an Aldia or a free woman, the children followed the father. If he married a slave, the children followed the mother, and became slaves of his lord. The Aldius, again, may not sell his lord's land or slaves, which indicates that he held land and slaves under his lord. What the word means, Grimm does not seem to know. He thinks it synonymous with 'litus,' of whom we hear as early as Tacitus' time, as one of the four classes, nobles, freemen, liti, slaves; and therefore libertus, a freedman. But the word does not merely mean, it appears, a slave half freed by his master; but one rather hereditarily half free, and holding a farm under his lord.