punishments of the most frightful character are denounced against him who violates it[83]; and though, in historical times, these can only be looked upon as comminatory and symbolical, it is very possible that they may be the records of savage sacrifices believed due, and even offered, to the gods of the violated sanctuary. I can well believe that we too had once our Diana Taurica. The Marks are called accursed; that is accursed to man, accursed to him that does not respect their sanctity: but they are sacred, for on their maintenance depend the safety of the community, and the service of the deities whom that community honours[84]. And even when the gods have abdicated their ancient power, even to the very last, the terrors of superstition come in aid of the enactments of law: the deep forests and marshes are the abodes of monsters and dragons; wood-spirits bewilder and decoy the wanderer to destruction: the Nicors house by the side of lakes and marshes[85]: Grendel, the man-eater, is a “mighty stepper over the mark[86]”: the chosen home of the firedrake is a fen[87]. Footnote 81: If a stranger come through _the wood_, he shall blow his horn and shout: this will be evidence that his intentions are just and peaceful. But if he attempt to slink through in secret, he may be slain, and shall lie unavenged. Leg. Ini. § 20, 21. Thorpe, i. 114, 116. If the deathblow under such circumstances be publicly avouched, his kindred or lord shall not even be allowed to prove that he was not a thief: otherwise, if the manslaughter be concealed. This raises a presumption in law against the slayer, and the dead man’s kindred shall be admitted to their oath that he was guiltless. Footnote 82: Cod. Vercel. And. l. 38. Footnote 83: Grimm has given examples of these, but they are too horrible for quotation. They may be read in his Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer, pp. 518, 519, 520. Footnote 84: I am inclined to think that the cwealmstow or place of execution was properly in the mark; as it is indeed probable that all capital punishments among the Germans were originally in the nature of sacrifices to the gods. When Juliana is about to be put to death, she is taken to the border, londmearce neáh, nigh to the landmark. Cod. Exon. p. 280. Prometheus hung in the ἄβροτος ἐρημία: though perhaps there is another and deeper feeling here,—that the friend of man should suffer in the desert “where no man comes, Nor hath come, since the making of the world!” Footnote 85: Beów. l. 2822. Footnote 86: Beów. l. 2695. micle mearcstapan. Footnote 87: “Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen Makes fear’d and talk’d of more than seen.” Shaksp. Coriol. act iv. sc. 1.