280 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy . 



V 106. — 50. Chariot-wright and house-carpenter and cloth-figurer and 

 relief-carver and shieldmaker, the franchise of a second hoaire for them. If 

 he practise together two crafts of them, the franchise of a first hoaire for him. 



51. Turners and fetterniakers and leather-workers and [wool-] combers 

 and fishermen, the franchise of a fer midboth for them. 



52. The harp, that is the one craft of music that is entitled to franchise, 

 so long as it accompanies nobility. The franchise of a first bdaire for him.^ 



V 108. — 53. Every art, now, that we have said, that is entitled to 

 franchise, the franchise that he has in the tuath does laot fail for want of his 

 art if he practise it elsewhere, be it in a tuath or in a church. Hence is (the 

 saying), " the ne7nith do not diminish each other."' 



54. Whose art is one, his dire is one. Whose art is many, his dire is 

 many. It increases franchise.^ 



55. The folk of vocal and instrumental music besides, jockeys and 

 charioteers and steersmen and followers in feast and retinue (?), and mummers 

 and jugglers and buffoons and clowns and the lesser crafts besides, it is in 

 regard of the honour of those who keep them that dire is paid for them. 

 Otherwise they have no franchise apart.* 



' " So long as it accompanies nobility" : the actual text has cen imte'td la hordain. 

 The gloss, followed in the official translation, paraphrases this by yen gurab imaille re 

 liuasal, " though it be not along with a noble." This would require, as a restoration of 

 the scribally corrupt text, ceni immthe{it) la hordain. I read cein immetheit, and under- 

 stand the sense to be that a harper had free status so long as he held official rank. See the 

 description of a king's house, with the airecht in session, in C.6., where the harper 

 occupies a place near the king at the table, while the other musicians are in a corner 

 apart behind the king's seat along with jugglers, over against the forfeited hostages. 



- The meaning is that to maintain the franchise acquired by reason of an art or craft, 

 it is not necessary that the person so enfranchised should practise his art or craft in the 

 tiiath to which he belongs or for its immediate benefit. "If he practise it elsewhere," 

 dia congba, lit. "if he practise jointly " — com having its full sense. " The nemith," etc. : 

 for ni mina dighat of the printed text, read ni 'mma d'lghat, the imm of the original being 

 represented, as usual, by the em of the etymological gloss. 



2 The maxim quoted at the end of the preceding article seems to refer properly to tliis 

 article. It was probably introduced first as a marginal or interlinear accretion, and so 

 became misplaced. 



■* The rendering of some of the terms in this article is conjectural. The gloss distin- 

 guishes between des eii'iil and des airfiUd, calling the former crundnaig, "singers of 

 cr6nan," the latter /edanaia, "players on a pipe or flute" ; but aes ciiiU ocus airfitid may 

 be only a comprehensive phrase = musicians. "Besides" means other than the harper. 

 Comail ocus daime. I read [o'es] com^il ocus ddime. Oreccoire : ace. to the gloss, they 

 make a green creccad on the eyes — some sort of disguise. All who follow this list of 

 occupations are without franchise, but when they are engaged in the service of a freeman, 

 injury done to them incurs liability to him. The original text probably ended here. The 

 articles that follow have the appearance of random accretions. 



