Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/111



all Mr. Seebohm's studies, this is mainly economical. It takes us through the maze of continental coinage at the time of the foundation of barbaric states on the ruins of the Roman empire, and it shows the changes, and also the equations which help us to understand those changes among the various Teutonic peoples whose laws were then superseding the Roman law in the government of the new social foundations. All this is very excellent, of course. It is a study which those who have not been able to work up the subject for themselves will welcome in several ways, and it opens the way to a correct understanding of the relationship of the several barbaric codes of law to one another. It occupies more than half Mr. Seebohm's book, and indeed forms the principal portion of his new study.

This seems to suggest that the title chosen by Mr. Seebohm does not altogether convey the true intent and result of his book; and indeed we object to the use of the word custom in this respect. Surely at this stage in the study of anthropology custom has assumed a certain definiteness in our vocabulary. Custom properly so called is not law, it is not a body of codified rules, it is not the governing force of any given social group, it is not sanctioned by the state or by the sovereign. And yet the custom which Mr. Seebohm deals with is all this. The point may be a small one, perhaps, but we cannot help thinking it has led to a confusion of thought which has its effect upon Mr. Seebohm's work. Let us take the passage on page 187: "Moreover," says Mr. Seebohm, "it is clear from internal evidence that the laws as we have them are by no means of one single date. They form, in fact, a collection of the customs of the three districts into which Frisia was divided, with modifications and various additions made to the original collections at different times." Or again, at page 337: "Special laws issued at various times by