distribution extended throughout the clan at the same
time. Later it extended only to the land of a _fine_, each _fine_ making
its own distribution at its own time and in its own way as determined by
the seventeen men above specified. In this distribution men might or
might not receive again their former portions. In the latter case
compensation was made for unexhausted improvements. This land could not
be sold, nor even let except for a season in case of domestic necessity.
The Feini who used it had no landlord and no rent to pay for this land,
and could not be deprived of it except by the clan for a crime. They
were subject only to public tributes and the ordinary obligations of
free men. Presumably their homesteads were not on this land and were not
subject to _Gabhailcine_. Neither were the unfenced and unappropriated
common lands--waste, bog, forest and mountain--which all clansmen were
free to use promiscuously at will.

There was hardly any selling and little letting of land in ancient
times. Flaiths and other persons holding large areas let to clansmen,
who then became _Ceiles_, not land, but the privilege of feeding upon
land a number of cattle specified by agreement. Flaiths and Bo-aires
also let cattle to a _ceile_ who had none or not enough, and this was
the most prevalent practice. There were two distinct methods of letting
and hiring--_saer_ (= free) and _daer_ (= base), the conditions being
fundamentally different. The conditions of _saer_-tenure were largely
settled by the law, were comparatively easy, did not require any
security to be given, left the _ceile_ free within the limits of justice
to end the connexion, left him competent in case of dispute to give
evidence against that of the flaith, and did not impose any liability on
the _fine_ of the _ceile_. By continued user of the same land for some
years and discharge of the public obligations in respect of it in
addition to the _ciss_ or payment as tenant, a _ceile_ became a
sub-owner or permanent tenant and could not be evicted. There is no
provision in these laws for evicting any one. For the hire of cattle a
usual payment was one beast in seven per annum for seven years; after
which the cattle that remained became the property of the hirer. A
_saer-ceile_ on growing wealthy might become a _bo-aire_. _Daer-tenure_,
whether of cattle or of the right to graze cattle upon land, was subject
to a _ciss-ninsciss_ (= wearisome tribute), for the payment of