MacNeill — Ancient Irish Lavj : Law of Status or Franchise. 316 



or for nobles of worth, nor for defence of sanctuary (?), to protect them : 

 protection against a standing surety ; protection of a son wlio flees his father ; 

 protection against a daughter who flees her mother ; protection of a slave 

 who flees his lord ; protection of a church-tenant who flees his church ; 

 protection of a man who flees his government of God or man ; protection of 

 a woman who flees her rule of matrimony — that which God has joined in the 

 beginning, let not man put asunder. 



V 312. — There are seven cases of support that are most hardly supported 

 in a tuath ; support of a king ; support of a hospitaller ; support of a smith ; 

 support of a wright; support of a wise man ; support of an embroidevess — for 

 some one is necessary to perform the function of each of them in his absence, 

 and that the earning of each of them may not fail in his house.' 



Dire. 



I 54. — There are four magnates of a hiath who degrade themselves into 

 petty folk : a king who gives false judgment, a bishop who stumbles, a fili 

 who fails in his duty, an incompetent noble. "Who fulfil not their diities, 

 to them no dire is due. - 



V 168. — There are seven mansions in the usage of the Eeni that are not 

 entitled to dh-e or lionourprice : the mansion from which every plight is 

 refused ; the mansion of the man who eats theft and plunder ; the mansion 

 of the man who betrays honour ; the mansion of the man who bears defama- 

 tion that defames him ; the man's mansion out of which son expels father ; 

 the mansion in which kin-murder is done ; the mansion that remains empty — 

 it is in this case (that the maxim applies) " the dire of every empty to a 

 nemed," but that " the dire of every empty " may not exceed one chattel and 

 (i.e. besides) restitution of that which has been damaged in it.' 



1 Only six cases are stated. The seventh may have been the olliaii or chief man of 

 lore in the luuth. Folacft, "support," is understood in the commentary to mean sick- 

 maintenance. Tlie notion apparently is that the person so supported was to be treated 

 away from home. The treatment was at the expense of the person held to be the agent 

 of the harm suffered, and the commentary sajs that in these cases this person could 

 ohoose whether the treatment should be in a place provided by him or in the sufferer's 

 home. In the latter alternative, the measurement of expense would be " most difficult." 



' Fili dinpiirinch, "a fili who fails in liis duty," i.e. who, in something that he is 

 bound to do, causes din^xtrt, privation of due, to another person. Aire essindniic, an 

 incompetent noble ": iiidniic appears to convey the idea of material and moral integrity, 

 competence in all respects for fulfilment of duties and functions. The last clause is 

 wrongly punctuated and wrongly translated in the official edition. The glossator, no 

 doubt rightly, interprets dire in the particular sense of "honourprice," etiec/unn. 



^ "Mansion": "fort" does not give the meaning of dun, a circular earthwork 

 surmounted by a stockade, surrounding the residence of king or noble. Such earth- 

 works are still extant in great numbers. "Defamation that defames him ": for <iir no 



