the
judgment-seat kicked. Conall gave a correct decision and released the
king. He did this a second time, and the people said he must have
king's blood in him." This allusion to the kicking of the
judgment-seat is a very instructive illustration of tribal
chieftainship and comes within that branch of the subject with which
we are now dealing.

But when we pass from Britain to Ireland, there is at once a great
storehouse of examples to be given. In Dr. Joyce's _Old Celtic
Romances_ there are some remarkable passages, which give us a good
picture of the assemblies of primitive times. These passages, it
should be noted, occur quite incidentally during the course of the
story--they belong to the same era as the fairy-legend, the giant, and
the witch, and taken as types of what was going on everywhere in
prehistoric times, they tell us much that is very valuable.

[Illustration: VIEW IN THE KASYA HILLS SHOWING STONE MEMORIALS]

A great fair-meeting was held by the King of Ireland, Nuada of the
Silver Hand, on the Hill of Usna. Not long had the people been
assembled, when they beheld a stately band of warriors, all mounted on
white steeds, coming towards them from the east, and at their head
rode a young champion, tall and comely. "This young warrior was Luga
of the Long Arms.... This troop came forward to where the King of Erin
sat surrounded by the Dedannans, and both parties exchanged friendly
greetings. A short time after this they saw another company
approaching, quite unlike the first, for they were grim and
surly-looking; namely, the tax-gatherers of the Fomorians, to the
number of nine nines, who were coming to demand their yearly tribute
from the men of Erin. When they reached the place where the king sat,
the entire assembly--the king himself among the rest--rose up before
them." Here, without following the story further, the assembling in
arms, the payment of the tributes at the council-hill, the sitting of
the king and his assembly, are all significant elements of the
primitive assembly. In a later part of the same story we have "the
Great Plain of the Assembly" mentioned (p. 48). Another graphic
picture is given a little later on, when the warrior Luga, above
mentioned, demands justice upon the slayers of his father, at the
great council on Tara hill. Luga asked the king that the chain of
silence should be shaken; and when it was shaken, when all were
listening in silence, he stood up and made his plea, whic