394 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



94. Question — When does a vassal become a lord from the grade of 



hdcdre ? When he has double (of the qualifications) of an aire desso, 



then he is the aire desso who is called a " hoairc excelling idairig " — he 

 acquires distinction over them if he obtains by advancing capital the [number 

 of] clients of any aire desso, differing from him, however, (in having) double 

 of (the qualifications of) an aire ddsso. Eight chattels is the price of his 

 honour.' 



Wlien, then, he doubles the wealth of a hoairc, then he is an 



aire desso ; for, though he increase honourprice to that extent, it does not 

 change the name of (his) grade for him. He makes oath (up to) eight 

 chattels, he is bond, surety, hostage, suitor, and witness, to that extent. 

 Four cumals are his capital from a lord. A cow with its accompaniment is 

 his house-custom every second year, a two-year-old steer in the alternate 

 year. Twenty-seven feet is his house, seventeen his outhouse. Four is the 

 number of his guest-company. Butter with condiment for him always. He 

 is entitled to four persons on sick-maintenance, lighting for four, salt meat on 

 the third, fifth, ninth, and tenth days, and on Sunday. It is of this grade 

 that the law of tlie Feni proclaims : " True lords are entitled to excess over 

 the obedience that they reckon. A lord who is not valid obtains half the 

 equivalent of the wealth that he amasses. Unless ten chattels give him 

 status, five chattels sue covenants till there be perfect fulness of equivalents, 

 for a half perishes from inevitable defairlt (1).'" 



95. Aire coisring, "a noble of constraint," why is he so called? Because 

 he constrains tuath and king and synod on behalf of his kindred, to whom he 

 does not owe fulfilment over simple contracts, but they accept him for chief 

 and he makes speech for them. This is the "noble of a kin." He gives a 

 pledge for his kin to king and synod and craftsmen, to compel them to 

 obedience.' 



' Immediately following the question is the phrase, Indiil is frith faithce, for which 

 O'Curry's translation is, "Upon going into a true green," explained in a foot-note as 

 referring to a precinct of four fields surrounding the house, but the words do not bear 

 this rendering, and, as they stand, are to nie unintelligible. The scribe may have 

 substituted for some phrase obscure to him the known phrase frith faithche, meaning 

 "lost property found on private land" (see V. 320, 328). 



2 The clause omitted, Ni ar mrugfer riaiii, is translated by O'Curi-y, "It is not among 

 ' brughaidh'-men he is counted "— an untenable rendering. The text appears defective. 

 "Lighting for {onr," fm suiululh cethrair ; there is no corresponding provision for the 

 other grades. O'Curry's rendering is, " Food for four is required." The quotation, one 

 of many not found in any published ancient tract, is not clear in meaning to me. 



^ I do not pretend to understand the technical force of the foregoing passage, beyond 

 that the noble in question is the legal head and .spokesman of a joint family. The 

 "constraint" which is the basis of his designation is probably that which is expressed in 

 the last sentence. 



