It appears also from Chapter XLV. of the Latin version and s. 84 of the Danish version that special care had been taken to prevent fraud on the part of the slayer in claiming the aid of his kinsmen. He was to pay one ‘sal’ of his own payment before calling upon them for their portion, which was called the _ættæbot_. He then was to collect together his father’s friends and compute with them what each was to pay. And when the day for payment came, not a penny was to be paid into the slayer’s hands till the hour when he paid it over to the slain man’s kindred. Then they were safe. The same course was to be afterwards adopted as regards the payments of maternal relations. The Latin version (Chapter XLV.) proceeds to say that this legislation not having been successful in extirpating fraud and discouraging murder, King Waldemar II. (A.D. 1202-1241) enacted that the murderer should be liable for the whole wergeld (instead of one third). The agnates and cognates were not to be forced by him to contribute against their will. Within three days the murderer was publicly to offer satisfaction or be outlawed, in which case he would be liable to be put to death by any one. In case, however, of his flight, his relatives, agnates and cognates, were individually to offer their proper share of two thirds of the wergeld or be liable to the vengeance of the relatives of the slain, so that the latter should not be deprived of all satisfaction. These clauses throw some light on ancient custom, but they are evident signs of the gradual loosening of the ties of kindred. [Sidenote: Payment for the servus and libertus.] In Chapter L. of the Latin version the payment for a _servus_ is fixed at three marks, and in Chapter LII. the payment for a _libertus_ is fixed at half that of the freeborn man. It is difficult to judge how far these are to be taken as the ancient wergelds of Scanian custom, or whether they had been altered in amount by changes in the currency or recent legislation. The wergeld of 15 marks of silver is exactly half of that of the normal wergeld of the Norse hauld. And yet it does not seem likely that it had been reduced in amount by recent legislation when it is considered that under the Norse laws, as we have seen, the tendency seemed to be to add ‘sakauka’ to the ancient wergelds rather than decrease them. It may be noted also that in a later addition[192] to the Danish version it is stated that ‘a man’s bot is 30 good marks and overbot 26 marks and 16 ortugs.’ And also in the ‘City Law’ of A.D. 1300 the wergeld is stated at 30 marks with an additional ‘overbot.’[193] * * * * * [Sidenote: The Scanian wergeld perhaps that of the ‘bonde.’] We seem bound to consider the wergeld of the freeborn man under the ‘Lex Scania antiqua’ of the previous century as 15 marks of silver. The explanation probably may be that the _bonde_ and not the hauld was taken as the typical freeborn man.