TRANSITION FROM TRIBAL SOCIETY 287 



The ancient laws of the Irish show us the successive 

 steps by which feudal relations were created in patro- 

 nymic tribal society. The Brehon laws disclose that at the 

 earliest period the chief was above all things else, a man 

 rich in cattle and sheep. One of the laws prescribes that 

 the head of a tribe besides being experienced, noble, and 

 learned, must possess wealth, and be "the most powerful 

 to oppose, the most steadfast to sue for profits and to be 

 sued for losses." 20 It is evident from these laws that the 

 way to chieftainship was always open through the ac- 

 quisition of wealth. The tribesman who had grown rich 

 in cattle and was striving to become a chief, was called, 

 a "bo-aire," or cow-nobleman. 



The first step in the direction of securing large pos- 

 sessions in the coveted oxen, was to serve some already 

 established chief. The young, the clever, and the brave, 

 who came to do court service to this well-known leader, 

 received as his companions, portions of his stock and 

 shares in the booty of marauding expeditions. The chief 

 also extended his right of pasturage in the outlying waste 

 to his retainers, whose own herds rapidly increased in 

 numbers. 



In this struggle for wealth there were some unfortu- 

 nate individuals who suffered loss and ruin. They were 

 present in the broken and crushed men who were known 

 in every Irish tribe as ' ' f uidhuirs. ' ' At first this class of 

 fuidhuirs was composed of outcasts from the clans, men 

 who had disobeyed the clan rules and violated tribal cus- 

 tom. The number of fuidhuirs was increased by inter-tri- 

 bal wars, in which tribes are broken up and scattered. 

 Such ruined and outlawed men the bo-aire gathered about 

 him on the tribal waste land as a band of rough adventur- 



20 Maine, op. cit. t p. 134. 



