MacNeill — Ancient Irish Law : Law of Status or Franchise. 305 



133. What is the due of a king who is always in residence at the head of 

 his tuath ? Seven score feet of perfect feet are the measiue of his stockade on 

 every side. Seven feet are the thickness of its earthwork, and twelve feet its 

 depth. It is then that he is a king, when ramparts of vassalage surround 

 him. What is the rampart of vassalage ? Twelve feet are the breadth of its 

 opening and its depth and its measure towards the stockade. Thirty feet are 

 its measure outwardly. ^ 



There are clergy for making the prayers of his house. A waggon of charcoal, 

 a waggon of ruslies, for every man if he have recited (the said prayers). 



The ruler of a staff is not entitled to have his stockade made, but only his 

 house. His house (measures) thirty-seven feet. There are seventeen beds in 

 a royal house." 



IV 338. — 134. How is a king's house arranged ? 



The king's guards on the south. Question — What guards are proper for 

 a king to have ? A man whom he has freed from the dungeon, from the 

 gallows, from captivity, a man whom he has freed from service, from servile 

 cottiership, from servile tenancy. He does not keep a man whom he has 

 saved from single combat, lest he betray him, lest he slay him, in malice or 

 for favour. 



135. What number of guards is proper for a king to have ? Four, namely, 

 a frontman and a henchman and two sidesmen, these are their names. It is 

 these that are proper to be in the south side of a king's house, to accompany 

 him from house into field, from field into house. 



A man of pledge for vassals next to these inward. What is this man's 

 dignity ? A man who has land of seven ciomals, who presides over his (the 



whole luaLh is held liable. The second instance is somewhat similar : the claim is made 

 by an external king and supported by the king of the tuaih ; if the defendant cannot be 

 reached, the levy is made on the Uiath at large, since the due cannot rightly be withheld ; 

 but the local king (whether he can make the defendant pay or not) is bound to repay 

 what he exacts from others. In the third instance, milch-cattle are excluded, because 

 their milk repays the trespass ; and the case is confined to waste land, because the law 

 has distinct provisions for trespass on good land. 



' The " rampart of vassalage," dvcchl r/iaUnai, seems to denote an outer earthwork of 

 which the external slope measures 30 feet, the internal 12 feet, the fiat top 12 feet, 

 diametrically, the width of the opening between its top and that of the inner earth- 

 work or stockade being also 12 feet. 



- The " ruler of a sta.S,"Jl(tifh hachail, means a king who has abdicated and gone on 

 pilgrimage, carrying afterwards a pilgrim's staff as the emblem of his turning to a 

 religious life. Since he ceased to be a man of war. his house is unfortified. Ritchie 

 (IV cc-ccvii), in the course of a laboured discourse intended to discredit the way of life 

 of " a Celtic prince of the period," says that the measurement given above for the house 

 of a pilgrim ex-king applies to " the house of the head king." The text gives no measure- 

 ments for the house of a reigning king of any grade. 



What follows is a description of a king's house when his court is sitting in it. 



