[70] Montesquieu finds in this custom the origin of the duel, and of
knight-errantry.

[71] This remarkable passage, so curious in political history, is
commented on by Montesquieu, in his Spirit of Laws. vi 11. That celebrated
author expresses his surprise at the existence of such a balance between
liberty and authority in the forests of Germany; and traces the origin of
the English constitution from this source. Tacitus again mentions the
German form of government in his Annals, iv. 33.

[72] The high antiquity of this made of reckoning appears from the Book of
Genesis. "The evening and the morning were the first day." The Gauls, we
are informed by Caesar, "assert that, according to the tradition of their
Druids, they are all sprung from Father Dis; on which account they reckon
every period of time according to the number of nights, not of days; and
observe birthdays and the beginnings of months and years in such a manner,
that the day seems to follow the night." (Bell. Gall. vi. 18.) The
vestiges of this method of computation still appear in the English
language, in the terms se'nnight and fort'night.

[73] _Ut turbae placuit_. Doederlein interprets this passage as
representing the confused way in which the people took their seats in the
national assembly, without reference to order, rank, age, &c. It rather
represents, however, that the people, not the chieftains, determined when
the business of the council should begin.--_White_.

[74] And in an open plain. Vast heaps of stone still remaining, denote the
scenes of these national councils. (See Mallet's Introduct. to Hist. of
Denmark.) The English Stonehenge has been supposed a relic of this kind.