In another Irish manuscript, older than the Lebor na Huidre , and bearing the title Liber Hymnorum , a method of occupyingthe soil is mentioned, which exactly recalls that which is still in force in the Swiss Allmends . There is a periodical allotmentto each family of a share in the bog, the forest and the arable. The weide , wald und feld of the Germanic mark correspondexactly to the bog-land, wood-land, and arable-land of the Celtic tribe. The Liber Hymnorum (probably of the eleventhcentury) contains the following passage: "Very numerous were the inhabitants of Ireland at this time (the time of the sons ofAed Slane, from the year 651 to 694), and their number was so great that they only received in the partition three lots ofnine `ridges' of land, namely nine ridges of bog-land, nine of forest, and nine of arable." Every family in the Swiss Allmend receives, in the same manner, certain parcels in each of the zones of the communal domain. This passage of the LiberHymnorum clearly shews that it was the increase of the population which put an end to the periodic re-distribution of thecollective property. Tacitus, describing the customs of the Germans, also shews the close connection that exists betweenextensive cultivation and the temporary occupation of the soil. "The extent of their fields," he tells us, "facilitates thesepartitions;" and he adds, "They do not labour to contend with the fertility of the soil, which bears nothing but corn: everyyear they change the part for cultivation, and some always remains unoccupied."The system of succession in force among the Irish Celts, called by English jurists gavelkind , resembles that which is still tobe found in the family communities or Zadrugas of Servia. When a member of the sept or Irish clan dies, leaving property,the chief makes a new distribution of all the lands of the 8ept among the different households, who thus obtain a largernumber of parcels. (5) Succession in the direct line is accordingly still unknown: the collective succession of the clan is thesystem in force, and women are entirely excluded. The Irish gavelkind , it will be seen, is quite different from the gavelkindcustomary in the county of Kent. The latter merely enjoins the division of the inheritance in equal parts among the children,as in the French law. If we wish to form an idea of the agrarian organization prevailing among the Irish Celts at the time ofthe Brehon Laws , we must look for its type, not in the village communities as still existing in Russia or Java, but rather in thesystem of family communities, such as are to be seen among the French peasants of the middle ages, or the modern Servians.
The Irish sept is almost exactly similar to the Slav Zadruga : the primitive community has given way to the family property ofthe gens . There is however one very, great difference to notice. In Ireland the chief of the sept has already acquired theauthority and privileges of a feudal lord, whereas in Servia an aristocracy is not yet developed, and the democratic equalityof primitive times is maintained.
1. Mr Cliffe Leslie quotes the following important passage of St Jerome, concerning two ancient Celtic tribes, the Scoti andAtticotti: Scotorum notio uxores propries non ha bet, sed ut cuique libitum fuerit pecudum more lasciviunt. Ipseadolescentulus vidi Atticottos, gentem britannicam, humanis vesci carnibus .
2. De Bell. Gall . VI. 29. The same social organization was found among the Scotch as among the Irish. Mr Skene, in hishook, The Highlanders of Scotland, quotes the evidence of an English officer in 1730. "The Highlanders are divided intotribes or clans under leaders or chieftains, and every clan is subdivided into `stocks' likewise subject to chieftains. These`stocks' are again divided into branches of the same race, which contain fifty or sixty men related by common descent."For the Brehon Laws see Ancient Laws of Ireland, published under the direction of the Brehon Laws Commission, and SirHenry Maine, Lectures on the Early History of Institutions .
3. "The alienation of landed property," says Sir G. Campbell, "is very rare, and the village community has a right of veto."( Systems of Land Tenure , p. 166.) See also for the droit de retrait , the curious work of M. Viollet, Caractère collectif despremières proprété's immobiliéres , p. 30.
4. The word rundale is said to come from the Celtic roinn-diol , which signifies a share in the distribution, or the portion ofone member. Under the rundale system, a certain portion of land was occupied by a group of families. (George Sigerson, History of Land Tenures in Ireland , p. 161) The pasturage and bog were subject to joint occupation, and the arable, dividedinto holdings, passed periodicallysometimes as often as every yearfrom one family to another. Other traces of the marksystem were also frequently met with; the arable was divided into three zones of different qualities, and every family had oneor more lots in each zone. (See Wakefield's Account , Vol. i. p. 260, and Sigerson loc. cit.) Quite recently the same agrariansystem was to be found in the Scotch Highlands. Sir H. Maine states, that in the Western Highlands, village communities,which have been recently dissolved, used to divide the land periodically among the inhabitants by lot. Mr Skene, who is ofgreat authority on this subject, expresses an opinion that this agrarian system once prevailed generally among the ScotchCelts. (See his note on Tribe Communities in Scotland in the second volume of his edition of Fordun's Chronicle .) Co.
operative societies, "knots," for agricultural purposes were established among kinsmen and also among strangers; and,according to Mr Sigerson, results were thus obtained, which isolated families could never have arrived at.
