the transition period, when, as at Rome, a great and skilled chief
was sought by his client as the supporter of his cause at the Moot. In
England, the idea of representation at law is, as is well known, late
and largely derived from canon law practice.

"To exact the blood-fine was as honourable as to take vengeance."--This
maxim, begotten by Interest upon Legality, established itself both in
Scandinavia and Arabia. It marks the first stage in a progress which,
if carried out wholly, substitutes law for feud. In the society of the
heathen Danes the maxim was a novelty; even in Christian Denmark men
sometimes preferred blood to fees.


MARRIAGE.--There are many reminiscences of "archaic marriage customs
in Saxo." The capture marriage has left traces in the guarded king's
daughters, the challenging of kings to fight or hand over their
daughters, in the promises to give a daughter or sister as a reward to
a hero who shall accomplish some feat. The existence of polygamy is
attested, and it went on till the days of Charles the Great and Harold
Fairhair in singular instances, in the case of great kings, and finally
disappeared before the strict ecclesiastic regulations.

But there are evidences also of later customs, such as "marriage by
purchase", already looked on as archaic in Saxo's day; and the free
women in Denmark had clearly long had a veto or refusal of a husband for
some time back, and sometimes even free choice. "Go-betweens" negotiate
marriages.

Betrothal was of course the usage. For the groom to defile an espoused
woman is a foul reproach. Gifts made to father-in-law after bridal by