Page:Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race.djvu/181

Rh It was from such a trial that a freeman accused of any crime could be saved by his kinsmen acting as his compurgators or oath-helpers, and taking oath that they believed him to be innocent. There can thus be no doubt that the principle underlying the structure of tribal society was that of blood relationship among the free tribesmen. This was the basis of the old customary laws introduced by the early Anglo-Saxons. They brought their tribal law with them, being yet in a tribal state. The earliest local settlements we can trace are those of families, and these were very often called by the name of their head, by which the family and descendants were commonly known. Among the early Anglo-Saxon tribes every freeman had two mægths—that of his father or paternal kin, and that of his mother or maternal kin. These groups, entirely distinct before his birth. united in his person, and both had with him rights and duties of kindred, but in different degrees. Those only were of kin and belonging to the mægth who had common blood originating from lawful marriage. In considering the rights and duties of a man’s kindred, we can, therefore, see that marriages must in almost all cases have been limited to families or groups of kinsmen living at no great distance apart. The degrees of relationship within which the duties and rights of kindred were confined constituted what was called the sippe, which can be clearly traced in Germany, and of which some traces are still existing in England at the present day. This archaic institution is one of the most curious survivals of the Teutonic race. It survived in England in the law of cousinship, and traces of it may probably still be found in some place-names. Bracton, who wrote in the thirteenth century, tells us of the law of succession in his time. He says: ‘Of kinship and of relationship some are