At the same time the mention of 100 scillings, if the payment be a _half_-wergeld, may help to an understanding of the _medume_ leodgeld of 100 scillings mentioned in Ethelbert’s Laws. It suggests that the _medume_ wergeld was a modified or middle one which, like the _medium_ werigeldum and _medium_ precium of the mediæval Latin of the Alamannic and other laws, had come to mean a _half_ one. Perhaps, after all, if we recognise clerical influence in the framing and modification of the Kentish laws, the translation of the Latin ‘_medium werigeldum_’ by the Anglo-Saxon ‘_medume leodgeld_’ is not very unnatural. Before we leave the laws of Hlothære and Eadric there are one or two further clauses worth notice. [Sidenote: System of oath-helpers.] Clause 5 reminds us that, though scarcely mentioned in these laws, the system of compurgation was in force. A freeman charged with a crime has to clear himself by the oaths of a number of ‘free æwda-men.’ Clause 6 makes mention of the protection of a woman by her kindred:-- [Sidenote: Position of the wife.] Gif ceorl acwyle be libbendum wife ⁊ bearne riht is ꝥ hit ꝥ bearn medder folgige ⁊ him mon an his fædering-magum wilsumne berigean geselle his feoh to healdenne oþþæt he .x. wintra sie. 6. If a husband (ceorl) die wife and child yet living, it is right that the child follow the mother: and let that sufficient guardian be given to him [the child] from among his paternal kinsmen to keep his property [cattle?] till he be ten winters old. These clauses, unimportant perhaps in themselves, are useful as showing that behind the silence of the laws tribal custom still lingered on, however seldom and slightly it might be brought into evidence as fresh circumstances might suggest new clauses. [Sidenote: Mund-byrds unchanged.] There are also some clauses which are useful as showing the continuance of the mund-byrds of king and ceorl of King Ethelbert’s Laws, unchanged in amount, a century later. By s. 11, if a man uses abusive words to another in any one’s ‘flet,’ ‘let him pay one scilling to him who owns the “flet” and six scillings to him to whom he said the words and twelve scillings to the King.’ So also in s. 12, one scilling is to be paid to the owner of the ‘flet,’ six scillings to the person wronged, and twelve scillings to the king. The six scillings to the person insulted or wronged is the _mund_ of the freeman or ceorl. Lastly, in s. 13 in case of a slaying in a drinking bout:-- Gif man wæpn abregde þær mæn drincen ⁊ þær man nan yfel ne deð scilling þan þe ꝥ flet age ⁊ cyninge xii scill. If a man draw a weapon where men are drinking and no harm be done, then a scilling to him who owns the flet and xii scillings to the King. Gif ꝥ flet geblodgad wyrðe forgylde þem mæn his mund-byrd ⁊ cyninge l. scill. If the flet be stained with blood, let him pay to the man [who owns the flet] his mund-byrd and 50 scillings to the King.