Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/814

800 CLAN while seated every time he made his return of tribute. Paying the " calpe " to the Highland chiefs represented this kind of vassalage, a colpdach or heifer being in many cases the amount of food-rent paid by a free or saer ceile. A tribesman might, however, if he pleased, pay a higher rent on receiving more stock together with certain other chattels for which no rent was chargeable. In this case he entered into a contract, and was therefore a bond or daer ceile. No one need have accepted stock on these terms, nor could he do so without the consent of his sept, and he might free himself at any time from his obligation by returning what he had received, and the rent due thereon. What every one was bound to do to his rig, or chief, he might do voluntarily to the flaith of his sept, to any flaith of the tribe, or even to one of another tribe. He might also become a bond ceile. In either case he might renounce his ceileship by returning a greater or lesser amount of stock than what he had received according to the circum stances under which he terminated his vassalage. In cases of disputed succession to the chiefship of a tribe the rival claimants were always anxious to get as many as possible to become their vassals. Hence the anxiety of minor chieftains, in later times in the Highlands of Scotland, to induce the clansmen to pay the " calpe " where there happened to be a doubt as to who was entitled to be chief. The effect of the custom of gavel-kind was to equalize the wealth of each and leave no one wealthy enough to be chief. The "joint and undivided family," and the forma tion of "joint families," or gilds, was one way of obviating this result; another way was the custom of tanistry. The headship of the tribe was practically confined to the mem bers of one family ; this was also the case with the head ship of a sept. Sometimes a son succeeded his father, but the rule was that the eldest and most capable member of the geilflne, that is the relatives of the actual chief to the fifth degree, 1 was selected during his lifetime to be his suc cessor, generally the eldest surviving brother or son of the preceding chief. The man selected as successor to a chief of a tribe, or chieftain of a sept, was called the tanist, and should be " the most experienced, the most noble, the most wealthy, the wisest, the most learned, the most truly popular, the most powerful to oppose, the most steadfast to sue for profits and [be sued] for losses." In addition to these qualities he should be free from personal blemishes and deformities, and of fit age to lead his tribe or sept, as the case may be, to battle. 2 So far as selecting the man of the geilflne who was supposed to possess all those qualities, the office of chief of a tribe or chieftain of a sept was elective, but as ihegeilfine was represented by four persons together with the chief or chieftain, the election was prac tically confined to one of the four. In order to support the dignity of the chief or chieftain a certain portion of the tribe or sept land was attached as an apanage to the office ; this land, with the duns, or fortified residences upon it, went to the successor, but a chief s own property might be gavelled. This custom of tanistry applied at first probably to the selection of the successors of a rig, but was gradually so extended that even a bo-aire had a tanist. A sept might have only one flaith, or lord, connected with it, or might have several. It sometimes happened, however, that a sept might be so broken and reduced as not to have even one man qualified to rank as a flaith. The rank of & flaith depended upon the number of his ceiles, 1 It is right to mention that the explanation here given of geilfine is different from that given in the introduction to the third volume of the Ancient Laws of Ireland, which has been followed by Sir H. S. Maine in hig account of it in his Early History of Institutions, and which the present writer believes to be erroneous. 2 It should also be mentioned that illegitimacy was not a bar. The issue of " handfast " marriages in Scotland were eligible to be chiefs, and even sometimes claimed under feudal law. that is, upon his wealth. The. flaith of a sept, and the highest when there was more than one, was ceann fine, or head of the sept, or as he was usually called in Scotland, the chieftain. He was also called the flaith geilfine, or head of the geilfine, that is, the kinsmen to the fifth degree from among whom should be chosen the tanist, and who accord ing to the custom of gavel-kind were the immediate heirs who received the personal property and were answerable for the liabilities of the sept. The flaiths of the different septs were the vassals of the rig, or chief of the tribe, and performed certain functions which were no doubt at first individual, but in time became the hereditary right of the sept. One of those was the office of maer, or steward of the chief s rents, <tc. ; 3 and another that of aire tuisi, lead ing aire, or taoisech, a word cognate with the Latin duc-s or dux, and Anglo-Saxon here-tog, leader of the " here, " or army. The taoisech was leader of the tribe in battle ; in later times the term seems to have been extended to several offices of rank. The cadet of a Highland clan was always called the taoisech, which has been translated captain; after the conquest of Wales the same term, tyivysaug, was used for a ruling prince. Slavery was very common in Ireland and Scotland ; in the former slaves constituted a common element in the stipends or gifts which the higher kings gave their vassal sub-regidi. Female slaves, who were employed in the houses of chiefs and flaiths in grinding meal with the hand-mill or quern, and in other domestic work, must have been very common, for the unit or stand ard for estimating the wealth of a 16-aire, blood-fines, Arc., was called a cumhal, the value of which was three cows, but which literally meant a female slave. The descendants of those slaves, prisoners of war, forfeited hostages, re fugees from other tribes, broken tribesmen, (tc., gathered round the residence of the rig and flaiths, or squatted upon their march-lands, forming a motley band of retainers which made a considerable element in the population, and one of the chief sources of the wealth of chiefs and flaiths. The other principal source of their income was the food- rent paid by ceiles, and especially by the daer or bond ceiles, who were hence called liathacJis, from biad, food. A flaith, but not a rig, might, if he liked, go to the house of his ceile and consume his food-rent in the house of the latter. Under the influence of feudal ideas and the growth of the modern views as to ownership of land, the chiefs and other lords of clans claimed in modern times the right of bestowing the tribe-land as turcrec, instead of stock, and receiving rent not for cattle and other chattels as in former times, but proportionate to the extent of land given to them. The turcr ec-land seems to have been at first given upon the same terms as turcrec-stock, but gradually a system of short leases grew up ; sometimes, too, it was given on mortgage. In the Highlands of Scotland ceiles who received turcrec-l&nd. were called " taksmen." On the death of the chief or lord, his successor either bestowed the land upon the same person or gave it to some other relative. In this way in each generation new families came into possession of land, and others sank into the mass of mere 8 This office is of considerable importance in connection with early Scottish history. In the Irish annals the rty, or chief of a great tribe (mor tuatli), such as of Ross, Moray, Marr, Buchan, &c., is called a mor maer, or great inaer. Sometimes the same person is called king also in these annals. Thus Findlaec, or Finlay, son of Ruadhri, the father of Shakespeare s Macbeth, is called king of Moray in the Annals of Ulster, and mor maer in the Annals of Tighernach. The term is never found in Scottish charters, but it occurs in the Book of the Abbey of Deir in Buchan, now in the library of the University of Cam bridge. The Scotic kings and their successors obviously regarded the chiefs of the great tribes in question merely as their maers, while their tribesmen only knew them as kings. From these " mor-maerships," which corresponded with the ancient mor tuatha, came most, if not

all, the ancient Scottish earldoms.