tion of roads, woods, and watercourses, the property in swarms of bees, and the bartering of goods. Hospitality to strangers was strictly enjoined; and there were many sumptuary laws with respect to the wearing of apparel.

With regard to the tenure of land, the common land of the tribe was enjoyed by all the members. Part was used for grazing purposes, and part was allotted in tracts, for the purpose of cultivation, to the various heads of households. The ownership of the common land was vested in the tribe, and the right of user was based upon tribe-membership only. The leading idea with respect to the specifically appropriated land was that of a partnership amongst the male members of the stirps. The law of primogeniture was unknown. On the death of any member of a family, his sons who were householders, both legitimate and illegitimate, took an equal share of his holding by the Irish custom of gavelkind. They were partners with him during his lifetime, and on his death the property survived to them as co-owners in undivided shares. In later times a quit-rent was demanded on each holding by the chief; but the land was never held on the condition of the rendering of anything in the nature of feudal service. A very curious custom sometimes prevailed in the distribution of the appropriated lands, under which, where circumstances. would permit of it, an organization sprang up known as the "Geilfine system." The original acquirer of the land, as each of his sons grew up and was ready to leave the home, gave him his share in the paternal acres, and

planted him out to maintain a household of his own. This was done successively to the number of four sons, if he had as many; the fifth and youngest remained with his father, and inherited the original home. The father and the four sons formed a family group of five households, which went by the name of the Geilfine, or "right hand group," from the five fingers on the hand (Gilla). The youngest son in his turn, when he had succeeded to the residue of the property and his sons grew up, planted them out one by one on portions of the remainder of the family land. He and his four sons then became the Geilfine, and his brothers' four households were in this way pushed further off from the household of the stirps, and were known as the Deirbhfine, or "particular group." The youngest and fifth son of the new Geilfine chief in his turn repeated the process, forming for himself and his sons a fresh Geilfine on his own account. The last Geilfine then became the Deirbhfine in its turn, and the old Deirbhifine became the “Iarfine,” ‡ or "after group." Again the process was repeated, and yet another and newer Geilfine was formed; each group as before took the place of the group more remotely related, and the Iarfine became the Indfine,§ or "end group." Here the process ceased, and no further subdivision was made. Each group acquired a separate instead of an undivided share in the paternal acres, and

"fair"? fine, a "family."

* Quære geil or geal, "white" or
+ Deirbh, also " true, ""handsome."

Iar, adverb, "after;" adjective, "black;" substantive, "the end." § In (quære Inne, "the middle" ?), "small," in compounds, "proper," "fit." (Quære Ind, the head or end of an arrow?)

became a fresh stirps, retaining the tract allotted to it, and repeating the plotting out of its own share its own way. Each family worked out on this plan consisted of seventeen households four in each of the four groups plus the original home. Where a group became extinct, the lands were taken per stirpes by the other groups of the family. On failure of a male representative, the land reverted to the tribe, though in later days, when the tribe system was becoming weakened, the daughters were in such cases permitted to inherit.

Agriculture was very much in its infancy. A little grain was grown by each family for its own support. The principal source of wealth, and the measure of value, as amongst primitive nations it always has been and still is, was cattle. The fines were calculated in COWS. The cow was the unit of value in all trade dealings. The square measurement of land was based upon the number of cows which could be supported on a given piece of ground of a given quality. Besides cows, another valuable property was the droves of pigs, which were turned out to get their living on the common forest-land; the flocks of sheep, which were depastured on the uplands of the tribe; and last, though not least, a breed of small horses remarkable for their fleetness. The ordinary dwellings of the tribesmen were small buildings, made of wood and wattles, about seventeen feet in length, with sometimes a detached kitchen in the rear. Their chiefs' houses were considerably larger, the average length being thirty-seven feet. But though these rude habitations were sufficient for ordinary pur

poses, we can judge from their stupendous sepulchral chambers, built of uncemented stones, such as the cairn of Newgrange and the hill of Dowth,* that when occasion required they could produce something demanding no mean architectural skill. The tribal dwellings were generally built in groups: sometimes perched upon an island in a land-locked mere; sometimes standing out of the water upon rough-hewn, well-driven piles; sometimes comprising a strong natural position upon the high ground, and protected with artificially constructed earthworks. The strength and size of their hill forts, the raths and duns, must have been very considerable. A strong earthwork, including a large area, contained the huts of the tribal garrison, and the towering central mound occupied by the chief, with excavated storehouses for the reception of grain; or a formidable wall of irregular unmortared masonry, ten, twelve, or fourteen feet in thickness, formed a circular fortress, which in those days must have been well-nigh impregnable.

Trade had been carried on between Ireland and the countries lying round the Mediterranean basin from the earliest times. The staple of the export trade was ores. There was also some traffic in slaves, which were brought over from Britain and the continent. The great walled road from Dublin to Galway was the trade highway which opened up the west. The unalloyed gold ornaments, torques, rings, fibulæ, bracelets, and the bronze swords, skeens, and spearheads, with articles of domestic use, found in the bogs and tumuli, or ploughed up in

* Works of this character are believed to be pre-Celtic.

newly broken land, give us evidence of a considerable acquaintance with the working of the precious metals.

The religion of the people was akin to the ancient Mithraic cult. The Celtic names of places bear strong indications of the existence of fire-worship, introduced by the Phoenician colonists, when the phallic dances sped round the venerated pillar-stones, and the Druids, priests of the sun, offered human sacrifices on the huge altar-stones; and laid to rest in the cromlech tombs the ashes of the dead warrior. A trace of serpent-worship still survives in the legend of the expulsion of the snakes from Ireland by St. Patrick.