en 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, _tywysaug_, 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-reguli_. 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
standard for estimating the wealth of a _bo-aire_, blood-fines, &c., 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, refugees from other tribes, broken
tribesmen, &c., 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
_biathachs_, 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 best owing 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 _turcrec_-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_-land 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 tribesmen. Sometimes a "taksman" succeeded in
acquiring his land in perpetuity, by gift, marriage or purchase, or even
by the "strong hand." The uni