In Chapter XCIX. the ordeal of hot iron is described as having three forms: (1) that of walking on twelve red-hot plough-shares; (2) that called ‘trux iarn,’ applied to cases of theft: _i.e._ carrying an iron twelve feet and then throwing it into a basin; (3) that of carrying it nine paces and then casting it down: called, from the throwing, _scuzs iarn_. After the ordeal the feet or hands, as the case might be, were to be wrapped in cloth and sealed to prevent fraud, and so to remain till the sabbath, on which day it should be opened and viewed in order to ascertain the innocence or guilt of the accused. This is one of the clauses which fixes the date of the Latin version, for the ordeal was abolished in A.D. 1215.[191] On the whole, we may fairly conclude that the Scanian law when regarded from a tribal point of view affords additional evidence of family occupation or ownership and of the solidarity of the family group in Scandinavian society. But at the same time it shows that in Scandinavia, as elsewhere, family ownership was gradually succumbing to the new rules of individual ownership. * * * * * The same process of gradual disintegration of tribal usage is visible also in the chapters relating to wergelds. [Sidenote: The Scanian wergeld.] In Chapter XLIII. it is enacted that the amount to be paid for homicide is not to exceed 15 marks of silver. [Sidenote: How it was divided.] In Chapter XLIV. it is stated that the wergeld is to be divided into three equal parts, of which each is commonly called a _sal_. And in the next chapter, ‘De Compositione,’ we are told that before the time of the last constitution it always lay upon the slayer or his heir to provide the first portion only from his own property. He might then exact the second portion from his agnates, and finally the third and last from his cognates. Then it proceeds to say that, as excessive amounts were levied by violence upon the kindred, King Canute had laid down certain rules for the payments. _Inter alia_, it was enacted that of the two thirds falling on the kindred, both agnates and cognates being computed in their grades of kinship, the prior grade should always pay twice as much as the grades behind it. Further, in Chapter XLVII. it is stated that according to ancient law the distribution should be so made that each third should be divided again into sub-thirds, one of which should be paid to the heirs of the slain, the second to the agnates, and the third to the cognates. [Sidenote: Later modifications.]