perhaps formally abjure the country[449]. Now it is perfectly clear that a law expressed in such general terms as these, cannot be directed to a particular and exceptional condition; that it does not apply to the accidental existence of gegyldan, but on the contrary assumes every man to have such: we cannot therefore construe it of voluntary associations formed for religious, social or funereal objects[450], and for the purposes of this law we must look upon gegylda as a general name borne by every individual in respect of some gyld or association of which he was taken to be a member. The only meanings which the root _gyld_ enables us to attach to the word gegylda are these; either, _one who shares with others in paying_; or, _one who shares with others in worshipping_. If we adopt the former rendering, we must suppose that certain contributions were made by a number of persons to a common purse, partly for festive purposes, partly as a mutual guarantee and club-fund for legal costs, for the expenses of reciprocal aid and defence, perhaps even for mortuary celebrations and charitable distributions. Another, though perhaps a less probable, suggestion is that such gegyldan may have been jointly responsible for taxes, or the outfit of armed men who attended in the _fyrd_ or military expedition, on behalf of them all. But this we cannot further illustrate, in the absence of all record of the financial system of the early Teutonic monarchs, even those of Charlemagne himself, which would have been invaluable guides to us through the intricacies of that dark subject of enquiry. The second meaning given to gegylda would rest upon the assumption of some private and as it were hero-worship, common to the gyld-brothers,—a fact familiar enough to us in the Athenian φυλαι and Roman _gentes_; but the existence of any such foundation for the gyld among the Anglosaxons is extremely improbable, when we consider the small numbers that appear to have constituted the association, and that no trace of any such worship remains in our heathen mythology[451]. I therefore prefer the first rendering of the word, and look upon gegyldan as representing those who mutually pay for one another; that is, under a system of pecuniary mulcts, those who are mutually responsible before the law,—the associates in the tithing and the hundred. ----- Footnote 447: There is some difficulty in deciding whether the head of the tithing was included in the ten, or beside it. I have proceeded upon the supposition that he was not included, consequently that there were really eleven men in the tithing. The leading authority (Jud. Civ. Lond. Æðelst. v. § 3. Thorpe, i. 230) is totally and irreconcilably contradictory on the point. Footnote 448: The Decani appear to be the same as the _Decimales homines_ of Æðelred’s law. Thorpe, i. 338. Footnote 449: Leg. Ælf. § 27. Footnote 450: