[878] The meaning of "foster-laen" is uncertain. Schmid wrongly identifies it with the gyft of Ine, 31, and thinks it is the purchase price of the bride, that is, the weotuma: Gesetze, 34, 35, note. Thorpe regards it also as the purchase price paid to the family of the bride: Anc. Laws, I, 254, note. Schroeder, Güterrecht, I, 51 n. 13, believes it to be a provision for maintenance of the children. But Sohm renders it Weinkauf, "drink-money," and this is probably right. It is a form or application of the arrha, which is not now paid down, but, the contract being formal, is promised to the guardian. The arrha had customarily been spent in treating the guests: Eheschliessung, 30, 31, 317, note.
[879] "The language of this law seems to indicate that the legal endowment of the woman was one-third of the chattels, as in Ine, c. 57. By contract, however, before marriage, the husband might increase this to one-half."—Thorpe, I, 255, note.
[880] The bohr was the surety for fulfilment of the pledges.
[881] Thorpe, Anc. Laws, I, 255, 257, who classes this formulary with the laws of Eadmund. Schmid leaves the date undetermined, but thinks it may with as much probability be ascribed to Eadmund or Æthelstan as any other king: Gesetze, lxv, find Anhang, VI, 391, 393. Cf. Pollock and Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, II, 367; and Dieckhoff, Kirchliche Trauung, 68 ff., who gives the text of this ritual.
[882] Sohm, Eheschliessung, 155, 100 n. 60, 317. Schroeder, Güterrecht, I, 53, 54, 96, reverses the meaning of these passages; and holds that the phrase "in case she choose his will" refers to the weotuma; and the phrase "if she live longer than he," to the morning-gift. But see Pollock and Maitland, II, 363, who render the last clause by "dower," and the first by "morning-gift."
[883] Brunner, Rechtsgeschichte, I, 74.
[884] This is the view of Sohm, Trauung und Verlobung, 38-57; Eheschliessung, 89, 90, 100, 59 ff.; as opposed to Friedberg, Verlobung and Trauung, 21 ff.; Eheschliessung, 21, 22, who thinks that the Trauung and Verlobung usually coincided. Cf. Schroeder, Rechtsgeschichte, 293; and Dieckhoff, Kirchliche Trauung, 67, who agrees with Sohm.
[885] For very interesting details relating to the German Trauung see Weinhold, Deutsche Frauen, II, 362-413. The old English betrothal ceremonies are best described by Roeder, Die Familie bei den Angelsachsen, 15 ff.
[886] Haas, in Weber's Indische Studien, V, 327-29, 391-99. Leist, Alt-arisches Jus Gentium, 133-71, gives a full discussion. Cf. above, chap. iv, pp. 171 ff.
[887] For the North Germans, Lehmann, Verlobung und Hochzeit, 80-88; Weinhold, Altnordisches Leben, 243-52; and in general, idem, Deutsche Frauen, 368 ff., 406 ff., 399. The third part of the ceremony is the Bettbeschreitung, or bedding of the newly married pair. Normally this takes place in the bridegroom's house, as according to northern custom: Lehmann, 85-87; but sometimes it appears to have taken place in the bride's home before the home-bringing: Weinhold, I, 399 ff. Cf. Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 22, 45, 64.