So far the clauses in the Scanian and Gulathing laws considered together seem to throw light upon the traditional principle on which the rights of the odal-sharers of the Norse laws may have been founded.
The rules of Cymric custom may not be identical with those of Scandinavian custom, but we seem to recognise very similar tribal principles at the root of them both.
The paterfamilias and those in communion with him.
Finally other clauses in the Scanian law may be alluded to as pointing to the common liability of the family group, i.e. of the paterfamilias and others ‘in communione’ with him.
Chapter IX. is as follows:—
Universos contingit de communi consortio quicquid vel culpa amittitur vel industria conquiritur singulorum.
As regards the common consortium whatever is lost by the fault of or acquired by the industry of individuals concerns all.
And in Chapter LXXXVII. it is enacted that if a person denies that he is in possession of a thing stolen and if afterwards upon scrutiny it is found in his house, double the value of the thing stolen is to be taken, ‘not only from the portion of the paterfamilias, but also from the common property (de bonis communibus), however many there may be with the paterfamilias in communione.’
And the reason stated confirms the prevalence of family holdings of the kind already mentioned.