Walking over sown land, or sending a woman of your mundium to do so, in
accordance with an ancient superstition, is a severe offence; so is
injuring a vineyard, or taking more than tres uvae (bunches of grapes, I
presume) from the vine. Injuring landmarks cut on the trees (theclaturas
and signaturas) or any other boundary mark, is severely punishable either
in a slave, or in a freeman.
In the vast woods range herds of swine, and in the pastures, horses,
cared for by law; for to take a herd of swine or brood mares as pledge,
without the king's leave, is punishable by death, or a fine of 900_s._
Oxen or horses used to the yoke can be taken as pledge; but only by leave
of the king, or of the schuldhais (local magistrate), on proof that the
debtor has no other property; for by them he gets his living. If,
however, you find pigs routing in your enclosure, you may kill one, under
certain restrictions, but not the 'sornpair,' sounder boar, who 'battit
et vincit' all the other boars in the sounder (old English for herd).
Rival swineherds, as is to be supposed, 'battidunt inter se,' and
'scandalum faciunt,' often enough. Whereon the law advises them to fight
it out, and then settle the damage between them.
Horses are cared for. To ride another man's horse costs 2s.; to dock or
crop him, eight-fold the damage; and so on of hurting another man's
horse. Moreover, if your neighbour's dog flies at you, you may hit him
with a stick or little sword, and kill him, but if you throw a stone
after him and kill him, you being then out of danger, you must give the
master a new dog.
Then there are quaint laws about hunting; and damage caused by wild
beasts caught in snares or brought to bay. A wounded stag belongs to the
man who has wounded it for twenty-four hours: but after that to anyone.
Tame deer, it is observable, are kept; and to kill a doe or fawn costs
6s., to kill a buck, 12s. Tame hawks, cranes, and swans, if taken in
snares, cost 6s. But any man may take flying hawks out of his
neighbour's wood, but not out of the Gaias Regis, the king's gehage,
haies, hedges, or enclosed parks.
And now, I have but one more law to mention--would God that it had been
in force in later centuries--
'Let no one presume to kill another man's aldia or ancilla, as a striga,
witch, which is called masca; because it is not to be believed by
Christian minds, that a woman can eat up a live man from within; and if
any one does so he shall pay 60s. as her price, and for his fault, half
to her master, and half to the king.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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