rewarded, the land in theory reverted to the
clan; but if like services continued to be rendered by the son or other
successor, and accepted by the clan, the land was not withdrawn. The
successors of statesmen, for whom the largest provision was made, became
a permanent nobility. Flaith (flah = noble chief) was a term applied to
a man of this rank. Rank, with the accompanying privileges, jurisdiction
and responsibility, was based upon a qualification of kinship and of
property, held by a family for a specified number of generations,
together with certain concurrent conditions; and it could be lost by
loss of property, crime, cowardice or other disgraceful conduct. The
flaiths in every tuath and all ranks of society were organized on the
same hierarchical pattern as royalty. A portion of land called the
_Cumhal Senorba_ was devoted to the support of widows, orphans and old
childless people.

_Fine_ (finna), originally meaning family, came in course of time to be
applied to a group of kindred families or to a whole clan. From
differences between incidental accounts written in different ages, it
appears that the social system underwent some change. For the purpose of
conveying some idea, one theory may be taken, according to which the
_fine_ was made up of seventeen clansmen, with their families, viz. the
_Geilfine_ consisting of the flaith-fine and four others in the same or
nearest degree of kinship to the centre, and the _Deirbhfine, Tarfine_
and _Innfine_, each consisting of four heads of families, forming
widening concentric circles of kinship to which the rights and
liabilities of the _fine_ extended with certainty, but in diminishing
degrees.

In course of time a large and increasing proportion of the good land
became, under the titles so far described, limited private property. The
area of arable land available for the common use of the clansmen was
gradually diminished by these encroachments, but was still always
substantial. A share of this was the birthright of every law-abiding
member of the Feini who needed it. To satisfy this title and give a
start in life to some young men who would otherwise have got none, this
land was subject to _Gabhailcine_ (= clan-resumption), meaning that the
clan resumed the whole area at intervals of a few years for a fresh
distribution after some occupants had died, and young men by attaining
manhood had become entitled. Hence the Anglo-Irish word _gavelkind_.
Anciently this re-