282 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



62. Whence come the divisions of orders of a tv.atli ? From a com- 

 parison with the orders of the Church, for every order that is in the 

 Church, it is just that its like should be in the tvMh, for the sake of declara- 

 tion or denial on oath, or of evidence, or of judgment, from each to the 

 other. 1 



63. Question : What are the orders of the tnath ? Fer midboth, loaire, 

 aire cUsa, aire ardd, aire tiiise, aire forgill, and king — if it be by the right of 

 Feni law ; and if it be not that, the following seven orders are distinguished : 

 Aire desa, aire ^chta, aire ardd, aire tiiise, aire forgill, tdniiise rig, and king.^ 



64. What are the subdivisions of loairigl Two (grades oi) fcr midloth, 

 and ocaire, and vassal who precedes vassals in husbandry, and hdaire of 

 excellence, and mruigfer, and fcr fothlai, and ccire coisring. 



65. What is the [measure of the] oath in litigation, and the bond, and the 

 guarantee, and the evidence, and the honourprice, and the food-provision, and 

 the sick-maintenance, and the protection, and the client-price, and the house- 

 custom of each of them ? Answer: As the Feni-law declares in verse : 



That thou mayesfc know the orders of the Feni, 



by estimate of [their rights in] court they are reckoned.^ 



opening phrases are here printed in brackets. They may have been added in the time 

 of the oldest glosses on law tracts, probably towards the end of the ninth century. 

 Gablach means " branching," but crith can hardly be connected with cren-, " purchase," 

 unless it was parallel in usage with creicc, the noun found as infinitive of cren-. The 

 antiquity of creicc is attested by the compounds fochraicc, taurchreicc, found in the early 

 texts. 'Meyev (C'ontribb.) says that this word crith is infinitive of crenim, but has no 

 instance of it in that sense except the title of this tract and O'Davoren's gloss, ".i. ic," 

 " that is, payment," which is probably based on the explanation in the tract. On the 

 strength of this evidence, Meyer gives the meanings " contract, payment " ; but a title 

 meaning "branching contract" or "branching payment " seems wholly inappropriate 

 here. A more suitable sense would be found if we could connect crith with the root t:ri 

 and explain it to mean "a sorting, a classificaticin." The second explanation in the text 

 above, if it does not ignore crith, which is hardly possible, explains it either through 

 fodlaiter, "are subdivided," or through im, " number." 



1 What was of established custom appeared to be of necessity. In the Irish custom, 

 as between the oath or evidence or judgment of two persons, that of the person of higher 

 status prevailed. 



- The writer ascribes the first classification to the tradition of the Feni. The second, 

 which he adopts below, is a variation of the classification of ruling nobles in Uraicecht 

 Bee, placing the boaire grades in a distinct lower class. An interpolation, which seems 

 to refer to the next article, prefixes to the second list the question : "What if it be not 

 the boaire with his eight subdivisions ? " 



^ Imrathoch, "oath in litigation." The prefix imm- denotes that two parties are in 

 question. Naidm, "bond": a person, called mace nascaire, -was pledged as surety. 

 Bdith, " guarantee" : the guarantee of a third party when a secured contract, cnndraih, 

 was made. Fiadnaise, "evidence": in some way, not fully explained, a man's evidence 

 was valid to the extent of his honourprice. Biaihad, "food-provision," for a certain 



