repeated his demand, and if not satisfied drove a herd of cattle or a
flock of sheep in upon the farm and left men to care for them.

_Athgabail_ ordinarily meant the seizure of movable property. The
following technical terms will indicate the procedure in distress with
time:--_Aurfocre_ (= demand of payment, stating the amount in presence
of witnesses); _apad_ (= delay); _athgabail_ (= the actual seizure);
_anad_ (= delay after seizure, the thing remaining in the debtor's
possession); _toxal_ (= the taking away of the thing seized); _fasc_ (=
notice to the debtor of the amount due, the _mainder_ or pound in which
the thing seized is impounded, and the name of the law agent); _dithim_
(= delay during which the thing is in pound); _lobad_ (= destruction or
forfeiture of the debtor's ownership and substitution of the creditor's
ownership). There was no sale, because sale for money was little known.
The property in the thing seized, to the amount of the debt and
expenses, became legally transferred from the debtor to the creditor,
not all at once but in stages fixed by law. A creditor was not at
liberty to seize household goods, farming utensils, or any goods the
loss of which would prevent the debtor recovering from embarrassment, so
long as there was other property which could be seized. A seizure could
be made only between sunrise and sunset. "If a man who is sued evades
justice, knowing the debt to be due of him, double the debt is payable
by him and a fine of five seds." When a large debt was clearly due, and
there was no property to seize, the debtor himself could be seized and
compelled to work as a prisoner or slave until the debt was paid.

When a defendant was of rank superior to that of the plaintiff, distress
had to be preceded by _troscad_ (= fasting). This is a legal process
unknown elsewhere except in parts of India. The plaintiff having made
his demand and waited a certain time without result, went and sat
without food before the door of the defendant. To refuse to submit to
fasting was considered indelibly disgraceful, and was one of the things
which legally degraded a man by reducing or destroying his honour-value.
The law said "he who does not give a pledge to fasting is an evader of
all; he who disregards all things shall not be paid by God or man." If a
plaintiff having duly fasted did not receive within a certain time the
satisfaction of his claim, he was entitled to distrain as in the case of
an ord