Page:Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race.djvu/221

Rh freemen has been referred to. Sussex affords us examples of hundreds mentioned in Domesday Book that appear originally to have been districts of this kind. This is seen in the case of the hundred of Bexelei, the area of which probably was that mentioned in a charter in the time of Off a as Bexwarena-land. These Bexware people thus mentioned as a district community no doubt had their local assembly or court, common to all Teutonic tribes, and it is difficult to see any other probable origin of the later hundred of Bexelei. The hundreds of Sussex were very numerous, and consequently for the most part small. No fewer than fifty of them are mentioned in Domesday Book, and they include those bearing the clan or tribal names Mellinges, Staninges, Ghestelinges, and Poninges, which are examples of small communities of people of the same kindred, and many similar names are mentioned in the Saxon charters. With the exception of Kent, Sussex contained a larger number of hundreds at the time of the Survey than any other county on the south-east coast. As we cannot suppose that all these comparatively small separate areas of administration arose in the later Saxon period, the conclusion appears unavoidable that the South Saxons were originally settled in small district communities, administered by their own local assemblies of the freemen.

Some evidence of variation in race among the South Saxons has been obtained by the examination of skulls from their cemeteries. Of fourteen, examined by Horton-Smith, found at Goring, near Worthing, thirteen were long and one broad. The long skulls were very marked, the average index being 72. As the English skull at the present time has an average index of 78, it will be seen that the great majority of the settlers at Goring were characterized by having specially long heads. They