288 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academi/. 



without (projecting) wattles, without protuberances (?). A hare fence of boards 

 around it. An oaken plank between every two beds.' 



IV 306. — 80. An ocaire-i house is larger. Its size is nineteen feet. Its 

 outhouse is thirteen feet, so that his house-custom may be divided (?) in two. 

 Eight cows are his loan-capital. That is ten chattels. It is the double of the 

 loan-capital of the previous grade ; for it is from laud that these (?) grades do 

 vassal-service ; of land, too, the value of his ten chattels (is given) to this man 

 to retain him as vassal. That land, too, is as means for him against it 

 (i.e. against the service due from him).- 



81. A dartaid of Shrovetide with its complement is his house-custom. 

 A pig's belly (i.e. a belly of bacon) therewith is the bacon that he pays with the 

 cow, or a bacon of one inch, fairly cut, and three sacks of malt and a half-sack 

 of wheat. Tor as double of the loan-capital of the lower gi'ades is the loan- 

 capital of the higher grade, double of the render, too, is his house-custom.^ 



82. He protects his equal in grade, for no grade protects one of higher 

 grade. He is entitled to food-provision for two persons, of milk and curds or 

 corn. He is not entitled to butter. A noggin of twelve inches of draumce 

 instead of new milk for each of the two, and a full-sized cake, or two cakes of 

 woman's baking. He is two (i.e. another accompanies hini) on sick- 

 maintenance. Butter, in this case, on the third, fifth, ninth, and tenth day, 

 and on Sunday.* 



83. Three chattels are his honourprice, but they are chattels of kine. He 

 is entitled to the dire of a hostage. 



Wherefore are these chattels paid him ? Answer — For his defamation, for 

 his expulsion, for violation of his precinct, for his dishonouring, for the burning 



' Cis in the early usage of the Laws denotes a charge for a particular purpose imposed 

 on land, etc. Jiic^is probably meant an "introduced charge," i.e. a charge in support 

 of some external object. A foot-note, IV 305, says that a teg inchis was a house for an 

 aged man who gave up his land in return for maintenance. The size of a house is usually 

 indicated as above by a single dimension, so that the house was either square or cii'cular 

 in plan. If deithe meant roof-tree or ridge-pole, the house was square. Dit itir each diiti 

 is translated (IV 305) " A dripping- board between every two weavings," which seems 

 conjectural. 



- The writer indicates that this is an exceptional case, in which land is given, instead 

 of cattle, as the loan-capital by which vassal-service is purchased. Taurchreicc means 

 both the purchasing of vassal-service (aicillne) and the capital given for that purpose. The 

 verb is *to-aurchreii, said of the lord, " he purchases (a duerchele) by a loan of capital." 



' A dartaid at Shrovetide would probably be a heifer about nine months old. " With 

 the cow" must mean with this animal. Bes taige, "house-custom," is the annual food- 

 payment made to the lord as a return on his capital. Somain, "profit," is also used to 

 denote the return on capital. 



* Draumce, dative sing. draurru:u, is translated "drawmcTie-milk," IV 303, and 

 "sour milk," IV 307 ; ar lernlacht is translated "upon new milk," but the change of 

 /or, "upon," to or is much later than this text, and "sour milk upon new milk" is 

 most unlikely. 



