MacNeill — Ancient Irish Law : Law of Status or Franchise. 291 



89. A " landman " {mritigfer), why is he so called ? Erom the number of his 

 lands. Land of three times seven cumals he has. He is the bdccire of adjudica- 

 tion, the boaire of gemos,yf[th all the apparatus of his house in their proper places: 

 a cauldron with its spits and supports; a vat in which a boiling [of ale] may be 

 stirred(?); a cauldron for ordinary use [and its] utensils, including irons and 

 trays and mugs, with its . . . ; a washing-trough and a bath, tubs, candlesticks, 

 knives for cutting rushes, ropes, an adze, an auger, a saw, a pair of shears, a 

 trestle (?), an axe; the tools for use in every season, every implement thereof 

 unborrowed ; a grindstone, mallets, a billhook, a hatchet, spears for killing 

 cattle : a fire always alive, a candle on the candlestick without fail ; full 

 ownership of a plough with all its outfit.^ 



90. The following are the functions of the boaire of adjudication [aforesaid] : 

 There be two casks in his house always, a cask of milk and a cask of ale. A 

 man of three snouts (he is) : the snout of a rooting hog that smooths the 

 wrinkles of the face in every season ; the snout of a bacon pig on a hook ; the 

 snout of a plough that pierces (? the ground) ; so that he may be ready to 

 receive king or bishop or doctor or judge from tlie road, and for the visits of 

 every company ; a man of three sacks (that he has) always in his house for 

 each quarter of the year : a sack of malt, a sack of sea-ash against the cutting 

 up of joints of his cattle, a sack of charcoal for irons. Seven houses he has, 

 a kiln, a barn, a mill — his share therein so that he grinds in it for others, a 

 dwelling of twenty-seven feet, an outhouse of seventeen feet, a pigsty, a calf- 

 fold, a sheep-fold. Twenty cows, two bulls, six oxen, twenty pigs, twenty 

 sheep, four hundred hogs, two brood sows, a saddle-horse, an enamelled bridle. 

 Sixteen sacks (of seed) in the ground. He has a bronze cauldron in which a 

 hog fits. He owns a park in which there are always sheep without (need to) 

 change ground. 



IV 312.— He and his wife have (each) four costumes. His wife is daughter 

 of his equal in grade in lawful matrimony. He is good in oath, in bond, in 

 guarantee, in evidence, in hostage, in loan, in loan at interest, free from theft, 

 from plunder, from homicide. Two cumals are his capital from a lord. A 

 cow with its accompaniment is his house-custom, both winter-food and 

 summer-food. Three persons are his company in the tuath. He is entitled 

 to butter with condiment always. He protects his equal in grade. He is 

 entitled to salted meat on the third, fifth, ninth, and tenth days, and on 

 Sunday. He makes oath in litigation (up to) six chattels, he is bond, surety, 



' Cre«j(s may possibly mean "comfort" or " good cheer. " The details in this instance 

 indicate that the writer has in view a typical prosperous husbandman. Fiilchrann, 

 rendered " trestle " above, probably means a strong wooden frame to hold large timber 

 for sawing, etc. 



