And when put together in this way the proportion between the wergeld of the freeman and that of the læts becomes important. In the Norse laws the leysing’s wergeld was one sixth that of the hauld or odalman. In the Bavarian and Saxon laws the wergeld of the _litus_ was one fourth that of the freeman. Anything like these proportions in Kent would make a wergeld as low as 100 scillings for the freeman very improbable. [Sidenote: The sceatts could not have been farthings.] Lastly, perhaps it may be fair to the reader to recur once more to the question of the Kentish scilling. If any doubt should remain as to whether we are right in regarding the sceatt as the silver coin of that name, twenty of which went to the Roman ounce until it was superseded by the penny of Offa and Alfred, surely that doubt must now be dispelled. For if, according to the view of Schmid and others, the sceatt were to be taken as a farthing or _quarter_ of a sceatt, the correspondence of Kentish with Continental wergelds and payments _pro fredo_ would be altogether destroyed. The eorl’s triple wergeld at a ratio of 1:10 would be only one sixth (and if 300 scillings only one twelfth) of that of the Frankish noble or official, while the Kentish freeman’s wergeld would be reduced to one sixth (or if 100 scillings to only one twelfth) of that of the Continental _liber_ or _ingenuus_. One perhaps must not say that such a result would be impossible. But would it be a likely one? We should have to suppose that the Jutish chieftain, perfectly familiar with the Continental wergeld of the freeman as 200 or 160 gold solidi, equated by long tradition with the round number of 100 head of cattle, upon settlement in Kent reduced the wergeld of the freeman to one sixth or one twelfth of what it was in the country he came from. From what we know of the tenacity of tribal custom everywhere, especially as regards the amount of the wergelds, it is difficult to conceive of his doing so. VIII. RESULT OF THE KENTISH EVIDENCE. We are now in a position to take a broader view of the wergelds, Continental, Kentish, Wessex, and Mercian. [Sidenote: The Kentish, Wessex, and Mercian wergelds thus brought into line with the normal Continental wergeld of 200 and 160 gold solidi or 100 head of cattle.] To the incidental mention of the fact that the Kentish freeman’s wergeld, if 200 Kentish scillings, equalled the gold _Mina Italica_ may be added the further incident that it was equal to 100 ‘sweetest cows’ of the Alamannic laws. Whether accidental coincidences or not, these facts bring us back to the point with which this inquiry started, viz. the widespread normal wergeld of 100 head of cattle and its very general traditional equation with a gold mina. The main facts elicited as to the amount of the wergelds in the course of this inquiry are these. At the date of the Kentish Laws and generally during the seventh century we find three wergelds in use in England for the freeman:--