Leechdoms, wortcunning, and starcraft of early England. Being a ...

hre^c
XIV
PREFACE,
Cattle thieves.
tlie language, and were in
frequent communication with
Gaul. They stored the hay in ricks ^ and mows,- where
it was less likely to get mouldy than in the half close
lofts of the Romans.
But according to the Roman system little hay was
prepared thus, there were legal impediments to extending
widely the formation of inclosed pasturage^, and
we read often enough of feeding the cattle upon leaves,
or rather on foliage.^ The man employed in procuring
small boughs for his cattle was called Frondator.^ The
greater part, by far, of Italian pasture land was common,
overspread by bushes and trees, where the employment
of herdsmen and shepherds was indispensable, and improvement
was almost impossible.
In the same way, in early England, a grass fiekP is
rarely heard of, while the law books are full of precautions
against cattle thieves, whose bad business was
made easy by the threadmg commons and wide moors,
along which a stolen herd could be driven, j)icking up
subsistence on its way, and evading observation by
keeping off the great roads. So much were the farmers
pestered with cattle thefts, that the legislature
required
responsible witnesses to the transfer of such property,
and would have it transacted in open market; it also
invented a team ; that is to say, when Z, who has lost
his oxen, found them and identified them in possession
of A, the said A was bound by trustworthy witnesses
to show that he had them lawfully from B ; B was
then compelled to go through the same process, and to
' This word is not in the Saxon
dictionaries, and I will not at present
indicate the passage where it is
to he found. Sa^ l^jL^juie^ eicXia.
•-.x.'J / ...'I. /> ^
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,
Oi^t^d. £
"^'Mugan, Exodus xxii. 6
" Quid maiora sequar Salices
" humilesque genistae
" Aiit ilia; pecori frondem aut
" pastoribus umbram
" SufEciunt."
Virgil. Georgic. II. 434.
" Hie ubi densas agricola; strin-
" gunt frondes."
'
Virgil. Eel. I. 57.
^ Gaejjj^un.
Id. Eel. ix. 60.