Among the Rikuanian Franks in the early centuries AD., a free woman who married a serf, disgracing herself thereby, was given a sword and a distaff. Choosing the one, she must strike the husband dead and remain free. Choosing the other, she adopted the symbol of slavery and became a slave for ever.
(Rom. 6. 13-16; 8. 13; Gal. 5. 24; Col. 3. 5)