( 284 ) Cherra, chirra; it will fall. cherra; the assise shall fall or abate. Britt. c. 75. Chiret en la possession. Yearb. M. 5 Edw. III. 58. Cheie, cheye, cheu; fallen; happened. Kelham. L. Fr. Dict. Lassise heads, (de capite suo,) being a kind of head or poll money. Co. Litt. 140 a. Blount. The Jews, while they were admitted to live in England, paid chevagium or poll money to the king; as appears by Pat. 8 Edw. I. par. 1, M. 15. And it was three pence for every head, paid yearly at Easter, in token of their servitude. Stat. de Judaismo. Blount. Chevage seems also to have been used for a sum of money yearly given to a man of power, for his countenance and protection as a chief or leader. Termes de la Ley. Cowell. (285) subordinate. To declare in chief, in the old books, signified to declare for the principal cause of action. 1 Tidd's Pr. 419. A beginning; that which comes first in order or proceedings. Examination in chief is the first examination of a witness on a trial, by the counsel of the party on whose behalf he is called, as distinguished from his cross-examination. 3 Carr. & P. 113. See In chief. (286) man, voc. Chiminus. Termes de la Ley. Com. Dig. Chimin. Le haut chimin; the highway. See Via, Way, Aditus. CHIMINAGE, Cheminage. L. Fr. [L. Lat. chiminagium, from chimin, q. v.] In old English law. A toll due by custom for having a way through a forest. Co. Litt. 56 a. A toll exacted by the foresters from carriages and horses passing through for ests. Spelman, voc. Chiminus. Charta de Foresta, c. 14. Called by the feudists pedagium. Co. Litt. ub. sup. Blount. CHIMINAGIUM, Cheminagium. L. Lat. In old English law. Chiminage. Charta de Foresta, c. 14. See Chiminage. (287) Archidzac. c. 1, apud Spelman, voc. Indentura Sometimes, however, used in the same sense as syngrapha, (q. v.) Id. ibid. In modern law. An evidence of debt, as a bond, bill or note. Chirographum apud debitorem repertum præsumitur solutum. An evidence of debt found in the debtor's possession is presumed to be paid. Halkerst. Mar. 20, cited Broom's Max. Introd. xv. Bell's Dict. Where a bill of exchange or promissory note is found in the possession of the drawee or maker, a presumption is raised that he has paid the money due upon the instrument. 1 Tayl. Ev. 117. See 14 Mees. & W. 379. Broom's Max. ub. sup. * ** In the Saxon times, any public instrument of gift or conveyance, attested by the subscription and crosses of the witnesses present, was called chirographum, a word taken from the Roman writers, who used it to signify a bond or obligation which a person wrote or subscribed with his own hand. Juvenal, xiii. 137. Suet. Aug. 87. The Normans, besides changing the mode of executing these instruments, altered their name also to charta. Spelman, voc. Charta. Ingulphus, cited ibid. and in Cowell. When the practice was afterwards introduced, of executing charters or deeds in parts, i. e. in a part and counterpart, (or as Cowell calls it, in script and rescript,) it was done as follows: The whole of the instrument was written twice on the same sheet or skin of paper or parchment, leaving a space in the middle, where certain capital letters were written. What these letters at first were, and in what form, does not precisely appear. Cowell says they were the capital letters of the alphabet. The idea of employing a single word for this purpose was probably borrowed from the civilians and canonists, who had the same fashion of executing their instruments, and who made use of the very expressive word syngrapha or syngraphus. Lindewod. tit. de offic. archidiac. c. 1, cited in Spelman, voc. Indentura. Cowell, voc. Indenture. See Indenture, Syngraphus. Instead of syngraphus, however, the word CHIROGRAPHUM was adopted, probably, from its ancient use in Saxon conveyances, (supra,) and from its convenient length, as well as appropriate meaning. After the instrument had been executed, with this word so written in capital letters between the parts, the parchment was divided by cutting it across, through the middle of these letters, so that when the two parts were separated, one would exhibit one half of the capital letters and one the other, and when joined, the words would appear entire. See Indenture. This cut or division was at first made in a straight line. Afterwards, the fashion came into use of cutting through the word in acute angles, (the cuts passing between the letters alternately,) like the teeth of a saw, (instar dentium,) which gave these deeds the name of indentures. 1 Reeves' Hist. Eng. Law, 89. This was afterwards changed to a waving line, which seems to have been continued as long as the word itself, (now Englished and written chirograph,) or the practice of cutting was retained. From this peculiar formality, the instruments themselves so executed were called chirographs. 2 Bl. Com. 295. 1 Reeves' Hist. ub. sup. Hargr. Co. Litt. note 234, lib. 2. The practice of executing deeds, (or charters, as they were termed) in this form, seems to have originally been confined to what were called charta communes, (common or mutual charters,) which are spoken of by Bracton under the name of charta cyrographata, (guæ scinditur per medium, et una pars remanet parti uni, et altera alteri.) Bract. fol. 34. Glanv. lib. 8, c. 1. The peculiar fashion of dividing or indenting through the word chirograph was continued in fines after it had been discontined in ordinary deeds; and hence the foot or conclusion of the fine, where the word was used, came to be itself called the chirograph. 2 Bl. Com. 351; and Appendix, No. ÏV. § 5. Blount. See Indenture. Other instruments besides charters were anciently prepared in the form of a chirograph. Fleta, in his description of the duties of a steward, (senescallus) says that he should inquire about the stock (instauro) existing in every manor, the inventory of which ought to be set down in a chirographed writing between him and the serjeant. Fleta, lib. 2, c. 72, § 7. CHIROTHECA, Ciroteca. L. Lat. In old English law. A glove. Bract. fol. 35 b. Par chirothecarum; a pair of gloves. Towns. Pl. 258.