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ssss1. Sometimes no fore-witnesses were required; for example, to choose an obvious case, where the claim was for the restoration of stolen cattle, which had been traced by “hue and cry” to defendant’s house or byre. The presumption of guilt was here so strong as to render corroborative evidence unnecessary. The plaintiff’s unsupported oath was thus sufficient to put the defendant on his “trial.” On the other hand, in the absence alike of presumption and of witnesses swearing in support of plaintiff’s oath, the defendant escaped without any “trial” at all.

ssss1. See infra under chapters 38 and 39, where the meaning of lex is discussed.

ssss1. Details may be studied in Dr. George Neilson’s Trial by Combat.

ssss1. See infra, chapters 38 and 39.

ssss1. Ordeal and compurgation and other forms of lex are further discussed infra, under chapters 38 and 39.

ssss1. Cf. Thayer, Evidence, p. 8. “The conception of the trial was that of a proceeding between the parties, carried on publicly, under forms which the community oversaw.”