809 



WEEK. 



WEIGHING-MACHINE. 



810 



sign of superabundant moisture, and only to be destroyed by under- 

 draining. The whole process of cultivation is a continual struggle 

 between the farmer and the weeds natural to the soil he cultivates. 

 The sooner he subdues them entirely, the less will be hia subsequent 

 trouble ; and the perfection of agriculture is to produce crops of such 

 vegetables as are useful and profitable, and are suited to the soil which 

 is cultivated, while all others are excluded which might interfere with 

 the crops to be raised. The almoot universal adoption of the system 

 of drilling and hoeing the crops, tends greatly to the destruction of 

 useless plants on arable land ; much yet may be done by way of 

 improving the produce of meadows and pastures by the destruction of 

 all noxious and useless plants, and the introduction of those which are 

 nutritious and improve the herbage, whether depastured or made into 

 hay ; and nothing is so likely to do so as a good system of alternate 

 husbandry, where the best grasses are cultivated as carefully as the 

 plants which are immediately applied to the food of man. 



Annual and biennial weeds are easily got rid of in comparison with 

 those which have perennial roots, and some of which increase the 

 faster the more the roots are divided. It may be proper to observe 

 that too little attention is paid to the weeds in our upland meadows 

 and pastures, many of which are detrimental when they are eaten for 

 want of better food. Of this kind are batter-cups, which, where the 

 cows are forced by hunger to eat them, may be very injurious to their 

 health and to the production of good milk. As these plants have 

 strong perennial roots, they take possession of rich moist soils to the 

 exclusion of good grasses. When not very abundant the plants may 

 be weeded out by means of a sharp spud or hoe, and the expense will 

 be well repaid in the quality of the hay or pasture. 



WEEK. This well-known period of seven days, now universally 

 adopted over the Christian and Mohammedan world, appears to be of 

 Hebrew or Chaldican origin. It has been commonly regarded as a 

 memorial of the creation of the world, according to the Mosaic account, 

 in that apace of time ; but it is besides the most obvious and conve- 

 nient division of the lunar or natural month ; and it is also more 

 nearly than any other short term would be, an aliquot part of the 

 solar year of 365 days ; so that its commodiousness in these two ways 

 would seem to have been sufficient to recommend its adoption. 



Dion Cassius attributes the invention of the week to the Egyptians, 

 from whom he seems to say it was borrowed in later times by the 

 Greeks and other nations (' Hist. Rom.,' xxxvii. 18, 19, and the note in 

 Eeimar's edition). It is certain that the week was unknown to the 

 Greeks of the classical ages, and also to the Romans, till it was gradu- 

 ally adopted, along with Christianity, under the later emperors. 



The curious passage we have referred to in Dion Cassius is the source 

 of all that is known as to the origin of the names that have been given 

 to the days of the week. The Ptolemaic arrangement of the heavenly 

 bodies, according to their distances from the earth, is in this order : 

 Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon (Saturn 

 being the most distant) ; and it was a principle of the ancient astrology 

 that these planets presided in this succession over the hours of the day. 

 Upon this notion, if the first hour be assigned to Satuni.it will be found 

 that the 25th (or first hour of the second day) will fall to the Sun ; the 

 49th (or first of the third day) to the Moon ; the 73rd (or first of the 

 fourth day) to Mars; the 97th (or first of the fifth day) to Mercury; 

 the 121st (or first of the sixth day) to Jupiter; and the 145th (or first 

 of the seventh day) to Venus. JJlei Saturni (the day of Saturn), Diet 

 Solii (the day of the Sun), &c., are accordingly the Latin designations 

 that have been given to the days of the week ; and from these have 

 been formed the modern names used in different countries either by 

 literal translation (in the Italian, Spanish, French, and other languages 

 of the Latin stock), or (in the Teutonic tongues) by the substitution, 

 in some cases, for the classical god of the corresponding deity of 

 northern paganism. Thus, the deity of the Old Saxons most resem- 

 bling Mars, being held to be Tiw, or Tiu, the day of Mars was called 

 by them, after their conversion to Christianity, Tiwes daeg, whence 

 our Tuesday (and probably also the modern German Dienstag) ; for a 

 similar reason the day of Mercury received the name of Wodnes daeg 

 (that is, Woden's day), whence our Wednesday (and the old German 

 Odinstag, for which Mittwoche, " Mid-week," is now used) ; the day of 

 Jupiter, Thunres daeg, or Thor's day (whence our Thursday, and the 

 modern German Donnerstag) ; and the day of Venus, Frige daeg, or 

 Friga'a day (whence our Friday). 



Dion Cassius, however, further states that the planetary theory from 

 which the denominations of the days of the week have thus been 

 1 is itself founded upon the doctrine of musical intervals. A 

 highly curious exposition of this idea has been given by the Abbd 

 Rouasier, in a Memoir on the Music of the Ancients, printed in the 

 ' M(5moircs de TreVoux," for November and December, 1770, and 

 August, 1771. 



It is a remarkable fact that the week of seven days is not only a 

 recognised space of time in the ancient Brahminical astronomy, but 

 that the days (beginning with Soucravaram, " the day of Venus," or 

 our Friday) are named in succession after the same planets or heavenly 

 bodies as among the Greeks and Latins. Upon this subject see Bailly's 

 ' Antronomie Indionno et Orientale," and various papers by Mr. Cole- 

 brooke and other* in the ' Asiatic Researches.' The subject of the 

 week is also discussed by ISohlen, ' Das Alte Indien,' ii. 214. 



WKHHGKLD or WEHRE (in Latin " Werigeldum," and in some 



cases " Compositio "), was a kind of fine for manslaughter, wounds, 

 &c., in use among the ancient Teutonic nations, by paying which the 

 offender, if a freeman, got rid of every further obligation or punish- 

 ment. The serf or unfree had no right to wehrgeld ; but by a law of 

 the emperor Henry II. (1022) the lord of the serf had a claim against 

 the slayer. The punishment of death was almost unknown among the 

 Teutonic nations, and was never inflicted for crimes against individuals, 

 but only for crimes and misdemeanours by which the community as 

 such was injured. Tacitus (' Germania,' 12 ) says that traitors and 

 deserters were hanged on trees, and that cowards and such as were of 

 infamous lives (corpore infames) were smothered in marshes ; hurdles 

 were thrown over them, by which their bodies were kept down. 

 Several bodies of Germans who were buried in that way, with the 

 hurdles still over them, have been found in the great marshes of 

 Northern Germany. It is very likely that death inflicted for such 

 crimes was less a punishment than a means of getting rid of persons 

 the sight of whom was a disgrace to the community, and for whom 

 there were no prisons. Crimes committed by one individual against 

 another were considered not directly to concern the community. The 

 wounded man, or the relations of him who had been slain, pursued 

 the culprit till they found him ready to satisfy their vengeance by 

 giving them a certain number of cattle and arms. (Tacitus, ib., 21.) 

 If the parties belonged to different communities, the consequence was 

 a feud between them and their adherents, no community having the 

 slightest authority over another ; but if the parties belonged to the same 

 community, the matter was soon settled. The plaintiff called tho 

 offender before the community, and if the defendant was found guilty, 

 he was sentenced to pay a certain fine, the wehrgeld or wehre. If the 

 defendant would not or could not pay, his relations were bound to pay 

 for him ; the father paid for his children, the master for his serfs, and 

 he who received a stranger in his house was liable for the misconduct 

 of his guest. The plaintiff was not obliged to summon the offender 

 before the meeting : he could pursue his cause with his sword, and 

 thus compel the defender to pay the wehrgeld, which was always pro- 

 portionate to the offence. If the cause was brought before the 

 community, the plaintiff only received part of the wehrgeld ; the com- 

 munity, or the king, when there was any, received the other part. 

 (Tacitus, ib., 12.) The part paid to the community must be considered 

 as a fine for the breach of peace, and the consequence of the reciprocal 

 obligation of the members of the community to maintain order. If 

 the wehrgeld were not paid, the right of taking personal revenge was 

 resumed. Laws therefore were passed enabling the community to 

 enforce a wehrgeld even when the defaulter was unable or refused 

 to pay. 



We learn from the written laws of the Teutonic nations that the 

 wehrgeld was for various crimes and misdemeanours, such as murder, 

 manslaughter, infliction of wounds, and grievous bodily harm, robbery, 

 theft, incendiarism, plagiary, rape, sodomy, verbal and real injuries, 

 and several others, such as the violation of a grave (' Lex Salica,' tit. 

 xvii.), by which is understood not only the injury done to the tomb, 

 such as taking the tombstone from one grave and putting itj on 

 another, but also stealing a dead body, or its clothes and ornaments. 

 The general Latin name for the fine paid for such crimes is " com- 

 positio ;" wehrgeld designating merely the fine for a crime committed 

 against the person of a freeman. The amount of the fine was in pro- 

 portion to the nature of the crime, to the loss of property or damage 

 resulting from it, and it varied according to the rauk of tho injured 

 person as well as of the offender. In case of theft or damage, the fine 

 did not exclude either the restitution of the stolen object or of the 

 damaged thing, if possible. In England tho laws relating to wehrgeld 

 received many modifications from Alfred downward. 



The wehrgeld was not the same among the different Teutonic tribes, 

 as may be seen by a comparison of their laws. The laws of the Anglo- 

 Saxons deserve particular attention. Mr. Kemble calculates that iu 

 Kent the wehrgeld of the noble was 360 shillings, and of the freeman 

 (or ceorl) 180 shillings. In Northumberland it seems to have been 

 somewhat higher. In Wessex that of the freeman was 200 shillings 

 and the noble 1200. The clergy were rated high an archbishop with 

 a prince, a bishop with an ealderman. 



(Eichhorn, Deutsc/te Stoats und Keichts Geachichtc ; Kemble, Saxons 

 in England.) 



WEIGHING-MACHINE is any contrivance by which the weight 

 of an object may be ascertained. Under BALANCE the principles of 

 the machines by which materials of comparatively small magnitude are 

 weighed are explained. The scales with equal arms and equipoised 

 weights require no further elucidation ; but a short notice may be 

 given of some others. The steelyard is a kind of balance or weighing- 

 machine, consisting of a lever of unequal arms. The most common 

 kind of steelyard, which is often called the Roman balance, is a lever 

 of the first order, and is used by suspending the article to be weighed 

 from the end of the shorter arm, and sliding a determinate weight 

 along the longer arm, to a greater or less distance from the fulcrum, 

 until the instrument remains in equilibrium in an horizontal position ; 

 the weight of the substance attached to the short arm of the lever 

 being indicated by observing tho position of the moveable balance- 

 weight with respect to a graduated scale marked upon the long arm of 

 the steelyard. In the common steelyard a hook or hooks are usually 

 suspended from the short arm, to hold the article the weight of which 



