MacNeili. — Ancient Irish Latv : Law of Status or Franchise. 277 



sheep for a garid, a yearling heifer for a/«r midboth, and three cakes his food- 

 provision.' 



V 86. — 35. Three chattels for a second hdaire, and from one canonical 

 hour to the other his protection, and five cakes with milk for him, or butter.^ 



V 88.-36. Five chattels for a first hdaire, and two days his protection, 

 and eight cakes for him with their condiment, and salt for their seasoning.' . 



V 90. — 37. Subject ncmitli, now, wrights and blacksmiths and brasiers 

 and whitesmiths and physicians and jurists and druids and the folk of every 

 art and craft besides . . . Thefranchiseof jurists and wrights increases till it 

 reaches food-provision for twelve men and fifteen chattels for dlre.^ 



V 92. — 38. If he be a jurist of the three rules — the rule of the Feni, and 

 the rule of the filid, and the rule of the white speech of Beatus ; if he be a 

 chief master craftsman, he rises to twenty chattels for dire, and has a month's 

 protection.^ 



' Flescach is still in use (Jleasgach), meaning a stripling. The commentary (V 86) 

 recognizes three grades oi flescach, their ages being (up to) eight, ten, and twelve years. 

 The gloss (V 85) equates the garid with the middle grade of these. The commentary 

 recognizes also three grades of fer midboth, with age-limits of 14, 20, and 30 years. 

 For a fuller account of the fer midboth, see O.G., which does not recognize the higher 

 grade from 20 to 30. The fer midboth was a youth or young man under his father's 

 authority : " this person has not power of his own foot or hand, his father has the power 

 of them " (gloss, V 80, 7). Inol, flescach, garid, are thus names for children under 12. 

 Their honourprice is fictitious (see commentary, V 87), and their function in the text is 

 to raise the number of non-ruling grades of freemen to seven. The text omits to state in 

 order the honourprice, protection, and refections of the mruii/fei — probably another 

 token of tentative classification. In C.G. mruigfer, "landman," ia the name of the 

 highest class of non-ruling noble, next to the fer fothlai, who has clients but not in sufficient 

 number to make him 3,flaith. 



2 "From one canonical hour to the other," 6n trdth co 'laill, meaning to the corre- 

 sponding hour on the following day. From this usage, trdth sometimes means a day's 

 space, 24 hours, distinct from kii<?ie, Ida, which means either the time of daylight or a 

 full day measured from nightfall to nightfall. The fact that trdth was used, instead of a 

 Latin loanword, to designate the ecclesiastical divisions of the day, indicates that it 

 signified some similar division in pre-Christian usage, probably a third of the day. For 

 the use of symbols which appear to indicate a threefold division of the day in the Coligny 

 Calendar, see the paper on that calendar by Rhys, Proceedings of the British Academy, 

 vol. iv, p. 78. 



' Here buaire replaces ocaire of the list above, the terms ("noble of kine," " junior 

 noble ") being apparently synonymous for the writer of this text. In other texts, glosses, 

 and commentaries, ocaire denotes a grade inferior to buaire. 



* Suire, " franchise, free status." The second clause seems to imply that a statement 

 of the minimum measure of status for these classes preceded. We may observe that the 

 text acknowledges the existence of druids, but the honours that formerly belonged to 

 the druids have gone to the Churchmen and the filid. 



6 "The rule of the Feni," Ireth Fe'ne = Fenechus, traditional Irish law. Breth filed, 

 " the rule of the filid," the doctrinal law of the schools. "The rule of the white speech 

 of Beatus": Scriptural law and Canon law. "The white speech of Beatus " is Latin. 

 In the Latin schools, learners began with the Psalms, and the first word of the first 



