[333]. Caesar, Bell. Gall. iv. 3. The Franks imposed a tribute of hides upon the Frisians: we hear also of tribute paid them by the Thuringians, Saxons and Slavic races.
[334]. A.D. 1056. Chron. Manniae. MS. Cott., Jul. A. VII., fol. 32.
[335]. “Servos conditionis huius per commercia tradunt, ut se quoque pudore victoriae exsolvant.” Germ. xxiv. The last member of the sentence is a bit of imaginative morality which we shall acquit the Germans of altogether. The very word caeteris in the next sentence shows clearly enough that if they did sell some slaves conditionis huius, they kept others for menial functions.
[336]. “Caeteris servis, non in nostrum morem, descriptis per familiam ministeriis, utuntur. Suam quisque sedem, suos penates regit. Frumenti modum dominus, aut pecoris, aut vestis, ut colono, iniungit; et servus hactenus paret.” Germ. xxv. This amounts to no more than the description of a certain class of our own copyholders, of the Slavonic holder in Bohemia or Galicia, and the peasant on a noble session in Hungary.
[337]. This is the obvious meaning of the passage, which has however been disputed, in defiance of sense and Latin: see Walther’s edition, vol. iv. 58. The general rule in the text is true, but where there were slaves they were used in the house, under the superintendence of the family. This of course applies more strongly to later historical periods, when the slaves (domestics) had become much more numerous, and the ladies much less domestic.
[338]. Deut. Rechtsalt. p. 305.
[339]. “Servi alii natura, alii facto, et alii empcione, et alii redempcione, alii sua vel alterius dacione servi, et si quae sunt aliae species huiusmodi, quas tamen omnes volumus sub uno servitutis membro constitui, quem casum ponimus appellari, ut ita dictum sit, servi alii casu, alii genitura.” Leg. Hen. I. lxxvi. § 3.
[340]. “Si quis ingenuus ancillam alienam sibi in coniugium sociaverit, ipse cum ea in servitutem inclinetur.” Lex Sal. xiv. 11. “Si ingenua femina aliquemcunque de illis (i. e. raptoribus non ingenuis) sua voluntate secuta fuerit, ingenuitatem suam perdat.” Lex Sal. xiv. 7.
[341]. Lex Rip. lviii. 18.
[342]. Lex Burg. xxxv. 2, 3.