MacNeill — Ancient Irish Law : Lav> of Status or Franchise. 301 



honourprice, for he takes a number of hostages, two or three or four, as (the 



the tradition of the Feni) says in verse : 



The king of the mead-rouud, of drinking, of governance, 

 Whom drinking confoundeth not in his law, 

 Is entitled to a cumul over seven 

 For the dire of his function. 



Twenty-four men are his retinue in his iuath, twelve men in private. 

 Fifteen cumals are his capital from a lord, eight cows his house-custom. A 

 king of troops has no sick-maintenance. Eight cumals take the place of his 

 sick-maintenance. Eight cumals are his honourprice ; he makes oath, is 

 bond, surety, hostage, suitor, witness, to that extent. He pays this amount 

 without security or borrowing, if one sue.^ 



118. A king of the stock of every head, now, why is he so called? 

 Because it is under the power of his correction that every head is whom its 

 lord does not constrain ; for every head that is stronger takes precedence 

 of that which is less strong. This is the king of overkings. There are 

 twice seven cumals in his honourprice, because kings and tuatlia are under 

 his power and correction. He makes oath (up to) twice seven cumals; 

 he is bond, surety, hostage, suitor, witness to that extent. Thirty are his 

 retinue in his tuath, seven hundred elsewhere for correction among others. 

 A king of overkings, a king-poet, and a hospitaller are without sick- 

 maintenance among the grades of a tuath. 



Half the sick-maintenance of (a man of) each grade is due to his lawful 

 son, to his wife . . . for what is a fourth in regard of every unlawful person 

 is a half in regard of every lawful person. A woman-guard, her sick- 

 maintenance (is measured) by the honour (i.e. grade) of son or husband. 

 Administrators, envoys, are maintained at half the sick-maintenance of their 

 lords. They act so that by the goodness of their action they are maintained 

 according to the provision made for them by their lord.^ 



IV 332. — Every craft that makes manufactured articles of ruler or church 

 is maintained on half-maintenance according to the dignity of each one whose 

 manufactured articles he makes. The maintenance of each grade in the 

 church is according to the corresponding grade in the tuath. Every mother 

 along with her son on sick-maintenance, if she be alive.^ 



' Aurri, " vice-king," either because he leads the troops of his subject kings on their 

 behalf or on behalf of a superior king. In later usage, iirti{yh), " urriagh " of Anglo- 

 Irish, means a sub-king. 



= The last clause seems to mean that the right of these persons to maintenance is 

 based not on their own wealth or rank, but on the function they discharge as deputies 

 for their lord and on the provision which he makes for them. 



^ The digression, in which the statement of the rights of a particular grade to sick- 

 maintenance leads to a more general statement on the subject of sick-maintenance, is 

 of a kind typical in the early law-tracts. Like the form of question and answer in which 

 this tract is cast, such digressions are reminiscent of the school. 



