versal prevalence of exchangeable
allotments, or the rundale system, shows that down to even comparatively
modern times some of the land was still recognized as the property of
the tribe, and was cultivated in village communities.

The chief governed the clan by the aid of a council called the _sabaid_
(_sab_, a prop), but the chief exercised much power, especially over the
miscellaneous body of non-tribesmen who lived on his own estate. This
power seems to have extended to life and death. Several of the
_flaiths_, perhaps, all heads of septs, also possessed somewhat
extensive powers of the same kind.

The Celtic dress, at least in the middle ages, consisted of a kind of
shirt reaching to a little below the knees called a _lenn_, a jacket
called an _inar_, and a garment called a _brat_, consisting of a single
piece of cloth. This was apparently the garb of the _aires_, who appear
to have been further distinguished by the number of colours in their
dress, for we are told that while a slave had clothes of one colour, a
_reg tuatha_, or chief of a tribe, had five, and an _ollamh_ and a
superior king six. The breeches was also known, and cloaks with a cowl
or hood, which buttoned up tight in front. The _lenn_ is the modern
kilt, and the _brat_ the plaid, so that the dress of the Irish and Welsh
in former times was the same as that of the Scottish Highlander.

By the abolition of the heritable jurisdiction of the Highland chiefs,
and the general disarmament of the clans by the acts passed in 1747
after the rebellion of 1745, the clan system was practically broken up,
though its influence still lingers in the more remote districts. An act
was also passed in 1747 forbidding the use of the Highland garb; but the
injustice and impolicy of such a law being generally felt it was
afterwards repealed. (W. K. S.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The following account of the Irish clan-system differs in some
respects from that in the article on BREHON LAWS (_q.v._); but it is
retained here in view of the authority of the writer and the admitted
obscurity of the whole subject. (ED. _E.B._)

[2] 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 was followed by Sir H.S. Maine in his account of it
in his _Early History of Institutions_, and which the present writer
believes to be erroneous.

[3] It should also