Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/79

 and Sentiments. 59 No. 39. Anglo-Saxon Pumjhment:. eqiiuleus. The following cut. No. 39, from the Harleian MS., No. 603 (fo often quoted), Ihows us the flocks, generally placed by the fide of the public road at the entrance to the town. Two other offenders are attached to the columns of the public building, ^ perhaps a court-houle, by apparently a rope and a chain. The Anglo- Saxon laws prefcribe few corporal punilhments, but fubftitute for them the payment of fines, or compenfa- tion-money, and thefe are propor- tioned to the ofl^ences with very extraordinary minutenefs. Thus, to fele6t a few examples from the very numerous lift of injuries which may be done to a man's perfon, — if any one ftruck off an ear, he was to pay twelve Ihillings, and, if an eye, fifty lliillings ; if the nofe were cut through, the payment was nine lliillings. " For each of the four front teeth, fix fliillings ; for the tooth which ftands next to them, four fliillings 5 for that which follows, three fliillings; and for all the others, a fliiUing each." If a thumb were ftruck off", it was valued at twenty fliillings. " If the fliooting finger were ftruck off"" (a term which fhows how incorretlly it has been alTumed that the Anglo- Saxons were not accuftomed to the bow), the compenfation was eight fliillings ; for the middle finger, four fliillings 3 for the ring-finger, fix ihillings ; and for the little finger eleven fliillings. The thumb-nail was valued at three fliillings ; and the finger-nails at one fliilling each. We have httle information on the fecrets of the toilette of the Anglo- Saxons. We know from many fources that wafliing and bathing were frequent pradices among them. The ufe of hot baths they probably derived from the Romans. The vocabularies give thermce as the Latin equivalent. They are not unfrequently mentioned in the ecclefiaftical laws, and in the canons pafled in the reign of king Edgar, warm baths and foft beds are profcribed as domeftic luxuries which tended to efleminacy. If thefe were really the thervicc of the Romans, it is perhaps the hoftility of the afcetic part of the Rcmifli clergy which caufed