COMBAT, in its general sense signifies a fight. The noun form is derived from the verb and the latter from the French of the same form. Owing to the prevalence of single com bats in Normandy and England in early Nor man times, the word combat, in England, where it was not altogether at home, came to be re stricted in sense generally to a fight between two individuals or between two parties, each chosen to uphold the honor of its own party or faction. Trial by combat and the ordinary sin gle combat encounter have both the same origin, which goes back to the dim ages long before formal history began. Originally single combat was frequently made use of to adjudge the guilt or innocence of the contending parties, and it was itself the same in import and origin as the trial by combat in all its various forms. The witch was tried by water, which she was popularly supposed to hate. In India women accused of unfaithfulness to marriage vows were subject to trial by fire to test their innocence or guilt. The single combat, early in the organization of society, came to be a union of two social inclinations, that of the tendency of two disputants to fight out their quarrel, and that of the potent influence of magic in which all primitive tribes believed and which was supposed to help the more powerful contendant. Later on this magic idea of the barbarian races and the savages gradually sur rounded itself with a moral atmosphere, the re sult of attributing the magic itself to the in fluence of the gods and their interference in behalf of one of the contendants, generally the one in the right. Later the idea of a divine guardianship of every human being came to lend a still more pronounced moral atmosphere to the single combat fought to decide a ques tion of right or wrong. Gradually, however,
this moral idea lost ground in ordinary single combat encounters, as the age of chivalry ad vanced, without a weakening of influence in its own particular sphere of trial by ordeal, into the service of which the trial by single combat still continued frequently to be pressed to the end of the age of chivalry. Very ancient usage was evidenced by Goliath (1 Sam. xvii), and by Ajax in the 'Iliad,' and by many of the characters in the mythologies of various nations. Among the Scottish clans the combat was sometimes be tween individuals; but just as often between a certain picked number on each side. Then again not infrequently one clan defied another to combat. The Norse practice of principals go ing alone to a small holm or island, to be free from disturbance while settling their quarrels by strength and skill, gave rise to the Saxon term Holm-Gang. In the days of chivalry the single combat received the strong support of law and custom, and was resorted to both in civil and in criminal cases. The accuser or plaintiff swore to the truth of his tale, the other gave him the lie, a gage of battle was thrown down and taken up, and they fought it out under rules before an assembly, the supposi tion being that God would give victory to the right The barbarous practice survives in European countries, without its excuse of superstition, in the modern duel, which is legally prohibited in the United States. In England it was still a legal method of trial well into the 19th century, but was abolished by statute 59 George III, cap. 48.