Terms which have in view the general economic condition of the peasant, vary a good deal according to localities. Even in private documents they are on the whole less frequent than the terms of the first class, and the Hundred Rolls use them but very rarely. It would be very wrong to imply that they were not widely spread in practice. On the contrary, their vernacular forms vouch for their vitality and their use in common speech. But being vernacular and popular in origin, these terms cannot obtain the uniformity and currency of literary names employed and recognised by official authority. The vernacular equivalent for _villanus_ seems to have been _niet_ or _neat_[266]. It points to the regular cultivators of the arable, possessed of holdings of normal size and performing the typical services of the manor[267]. The peasant's condition is here regarded from the economical side, in the mutual relation of tenure and work, not in the strictly legal sense, and men of this category form the main stock of the manorial population. The Rochester Custumal says[268] that neats are more free than cottagers, and that they hold virgates. The superior degree of freedom thus ascribed to them is certainly not to be taken in the legal sense, but is merely a superiority in material condition. The contrast with cottagers is a standing one[269], and, being the main population of the village, _neats_ are treated sometimes as if they were the only people there[270]. The name may be explained etymologically by the Anglo-Saxon _geneat_, which in documents of the tenth and eleventh century means a man using another person's land. The differences in application may be discussed when we come to examine the Saxon evidence. Another Saxon term--_gebúr_--has left its trace in the _burus_ and _buriman_ of Norman records. The word does not occur very often, and seems to have been applied in two different ways--to the chief villains of the township in some places, and to the smaller tenantry, apparently in confusion with the Norman _bordarius_, in some other[271]. The very possibility of such a confusion shows that it was going out of common use. On the other hand, the Danish equivalent _bondus_ is widely spread. It is to be found constantly in the Danish counties[272]. The original meaning is that of cultivator or 'husband'--the same in fact as that of _gebúr_ and boor. Feudal records give curious testimony of the way in which the word slid down into the 'bondage' of the present day. We see it wavering, as it were, sometimes exchanging with _servus_ and _villanus_, and sometimes opposed to them[273]. Another word of kindred meaning, chiefly found in eastern districts, is _landsettus_, with the corresponding term for the tenure[274]; this of course according to its etymology simply means an occupier, a man sitting on land. [Terms to indicate the nature of services.]