MacNeill — Ancient Irish Law : Law of Status or Franchise. 289 



of his house, for robbing it, for (taking) theft out of it, for (taking) theft into 

 it, for forcing his wife, his daughter. But it is a rule of law in the tradition 

 of the Feni, half of the dire (i.e. of the honourprice) of eveiy grade of the 

 tuath for his wife and his son and his daughter, unless it be a dorimdne or a 

 son who is a defaulter from his filial duty — for these a fourth. His honour- 

 price is (the measure of value to which) he makes oath and which goes upon 

 his bojid and his guarantee and his hostage and his evidence. And the two 

 chattels that are wanting for him, it is because the establishment of his house 

 is not complete, and that he cannot become guarantee for them like every 

 hoaire, owing to the smallness of his means.' 



IV 308. — 84. A "vassal excelling vassals in husbandry": his cattle are 

 in sums of ten : that is, he has ten cows, ten pigs, ten sheep ; a fourth part in 

 a plough, to wit, an ox and a ploughshare and a goad and a halter. He has 

 a house of twenty feet, with an outhouse of fourteen feet. Four cliattels are 

 his dire for his defamation, for his expulsion, for violation of his pi-ecinct, for 

 violation of his honour. He makes oath to that extent. He is bond, surety, 

 hostage, suitor, witness to that extent. Ten cows are his capital from a lord. 

 The choice of his yearling stock and a bacon of two fingers, fairly cut, and 

 four sacks of malt, and a . . . measure of salt, is the custom of his house. 

 Proper furniture, both irons and vessels." 



85. This is the " baptismal vassal," if he be in his innocence, free from 

 theft, from plunder, from slaying a man except on a day of battle, or someone 

 who sues him for his head ; being in rightful wedlock and faultless on fast 

 days and Sundays and in Lents.' 



' The last clause indicates that five chattels was held to be the normal minimum of 

 honourprice for a freeman. Five chattels was the ordinary dire for oflences against 

 property, and a person who could not give security to that extent was below the normal 

 free status. The ucaire- was a sort of freeman cadet. What is said above of his son and 

 daughter shows that the term ucaire (lit. "young noble") is not indicative of youth. 

 Dormuine was the name of one of several kinds of concubine. 



^ " A vassal excelling," etc. The text here has aithech ar a threba ; a deich dewhde, etc- 

 Deichde belongs to the following clause. Read aithech ara-threba aithechaib. Aithech 

 means primarily a person from whom aithe, repayment, is due. The repayment in 

 question is the return on capital advanced by a lord, and aithech means a person bound 

 to make such repayment. Ar.treba,\it. "fore-cultivates." Cp. a?-. 6?, "excels." 



"The choice of his yearling stock," lit. "the choice of a generation." As the 

 classification is between that of the ocaire, who pays "a Shrovetide heifer" in house- 

 custom, and the boairefebsa, who pays a two-year-old steer, the "generation " must mean 

 the calves born in the year before payment. 



' " Baptismal vassal," aithech baitside. The name, in the form aithech haitse, appears 

 again in Miadlechta, IV 352, to denote one of the low grades without franchise and unfit 

 for military service. Taking the two passages together, we may infer that the term was 

 one of current usage rather than a legal technicality, and the notion was of a man 

 who had " preserved his baptismal innocence," which to one writer meant that he was a 

 good peaceful agriculturist, to the other that he was not good in any other sense. 



