perienced, 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.[3] So far as selecting the man of the _geilfine_ who was
supposed to possess all those qualities, the office of chief of a tribe
or chieftain of a sept was elective, but as the _geilfine_ was
represented by four persons, together with the chief or chieftain, the
election was practically 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 a _flaith_ depended upon the number of his
_ceiles_, 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, according 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, &c.;[4] and another that of
_aire tuisi_, leading _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 be