deemsters. The oath of the deemster is, that he will execute the laws of the island justly and " so indifferently as the backbone doth lie in the midst of the fish," a form said to have been so worded that his daily meal of herring will remind him of the obli gation he is under to give impartial judg ment. An appeal from the deemster's decision goes to " the Staff of Government," a court in which the governor of the island is ex officio sole judge. The oath of this digni tary is scarcely less quaint than that of the other; it is that he shall "deal as indiffer ently between party and party as this staff now standeth," referring to an emblem of authority which he holds upright in his hand. Up to 141 7 many of the laws of Man were uncodified. These unwritten statutes were termed Breast Laws. They were im parted unto the deemsters secretly, to be revealed unto the people as might be deemed expedient. In the year mentioned, how ever, Sir John Stanley, king and lord of Man, embodied these statutes in a written code, to the great satisfaction of the people, who many of them suffered unjustly under the old system. One of the oddest of the old Manx laws was the following : " If a man steal a horse or an oxe, it is no felony, for the offender cannot hide them, but if he steal a capon or a pigge, he shall be hanged." Another old decree ordains that if a man was proved to have wronged a maid, the deemster was to hand her an axe, a rope, and a ring, that she might deal with the offender in one of three ways, viz., behead him with the axe, hang him with the rope, or marry him with the ring. Tradition has it that the maids were usually lenient. Slander against any of the chief officers or the House of Keys was punished by a fine of £10 and the loss of both ears. " In case of theft," ran another old law, " if it amount to the value of sixpence halfpenny,
shall be felony to death to the offender; and under that value to be whipped, or set upon a wooden horse ordained for such offenders." Still another of the old statutes read thus : "If any person, having occasion to take the law against another, if that he find him within the Court, he may by law take him by the arm and bring him before the Deemsters, and set his Foot upon him, and take the Law of him, although he never summoned him." Among the ancient institutions of the island was one known as " setting quests," consisting of four of the lord proprietor's tenants. A setting quest was chosen from every parish in the island, and their duty was to find suitable tenants for any of the lord's lands which might fall vacant. The tenant thus chosen was obliged to take the land, and if he failed to pay the rent, the setting quest was liable, for having chosen an impecunious person. Servants who should hire with two mas ters had to serve the first, while the second took his wages, and if the offense was re peated he was to be whipped in the stocks. Another old statute provided that if there was a scarcity of servants to work the lord's lands, the latter, through a "jury of ser vants," might compel the tenant who paid the smaller rent to work for him who paid the larger. The deemsters and coroners of the island enjoyed atone time a curious privilege known as " yarding "; that is, compelling the ser vice of persons of either sex at a trifling wage fixed by law. An officer, called a sumner, was sent to lay a straw on the shoulder of the person required, saying, "You are hereby yarded for the service of the lord of Man in the house of his deem ster," or coroner, as the case might be. Per sons refusing to comply with this summons were committed to prison and kept on small fare until they submitted, when the expense incurred by their refusal was deducted from their wages.
