some confusion may have arisen, especially where plates and
pillars were provided for the deposit of earnest money.

In all this there is much to remind us of the Roman _mancipatio_, a
method of sale which demanded the presence of five witnesses, and in
which the buyer took possession of his new purchase by holding in his
hand a bronze ingot and repeating the formula: "This man [i.e., a slave]
I claim as belonging to me by right quiritary; and be he [or he is]
purchased to me by this ingot and this scale of bronze [i.e., that in
which the purchase money had been weighed out]."

We have expressed the opinion that the payment of God's Penny was a
symbolical act, and this opinion is supported by the fact that there
were in mediaeval England hand-clasp bargains. Marbeck, a musician and
theologian of the sixteenth century, remarks: "As ye see: after all
bargaines there is a signe thereof made, eyther clapping of hands or
giving earnest." Among the provisions of the Grimsby charter of 1259 is
one to the effect that only buyers of the said town might make bargains
by hand-clasp for herring or other fish or for corn. To this was added
that hand-clasp bargains were to be valid, unless the merchandise, which
was the subject of such a bargain, should be inferior to that agreed
upon--a question which has to be determined by men worthy of credit. In
Shakespeare's "Henry V." we meet with the saying: "Give me your answer,
i' faith, do; and so clasp hands _and a bargain_; how say you, lady?"
This recalls that the joining of hands in the marriage ceremony is in
the highest degree symbolical; and it is, of course, the common token of
faith in friendship. Judging by these parallels, the payment of God's
Penny was not less symbolical than its equivalent, the clapping or
clasping of hands.

URBAN

CHAPTER XVI

THE MERCHANT AND HIS MARK

In the course of the preceding chapter reference was made to the
illiteracy of our ancestors in its bearing upon trade usages. In the
present chapter we propose to supplement this allusion by drawing
attention to a feature of commercial life which was certainly influenced
by, if not actually due to, the prevailing lack of education. The
combination "Merchants' Marks" is so familiar as to suggest that such
marks were used by merchants alone. This was by no means the case.
Farmers also had their marks. "When a yeoman," says Mr. Williams,
"affixed a mark to a deed, he drew a signum by which his l