That division of the _Finé_ which was formed of those of the same tribe as the _Flath_ or chief consisted of two distinct elements, the first being the _Ciniud_ or near kinsmen of the _Flath_, and the second of those of the tribe who became his dependants and followers. The first, as descended from the original founder of the sept, had hereditary claims upon his land, as well as duties and privileges derived from kin to the chief, while the rights and duties of the latter were founded on contract; and here we come in contact with one of the most difficult and obscure features of the _Finé_ constitution, viz., that institution by which the duties and the privileges arising from kindred with the chief are limited to an artificial group of seventeen persons, which again was divided into four lesser groups, termed respectively _Geilfiné_, _Deirbhfiné_, _Iarfiné_, and _Indfiné_. These formed the _Duthaig Finé_, or the sept in its narrowest sense. The _Geilfiné_ consisted of five persons, and each of the others of four, making seventeen in all. Upon these four groups of kinsmen appears, in the first place, to have been imposed a joint responsibility for each member of it. Thus, we find in the Senchus Mor, that ‘the four nearest _Finé_ bear the crimes of each kinsman of their stock, _Geilfiné_ and _Deirbhfiné_, _Iarfiné_ and _Indfiné_;[199] and in a commentary on the Senchus Mor, they are termed ‘the four nearest _Finé_ or families,’ that is, ‘because it is four _Finés_ that sustain the liabilities of every person that is related to them intimately.’[200] They likewise possessed mutual rights of succession in the _dibad_ of the chief, or the land which passed to his kinsfolk. These rights are very elaborately stated in the Book of Aicill, but it is necessary to give them in detail in order to understand the nature of this grouping of the kinsfolk. In answer to the question, ‘What is the reciprocal right among _Finé_?’ we are told that ‘if the _Geilfiné_ division become extinct, three-fourths of the _dibad_ of the _Geilfiné_ shall go to the _Deirbhfiné_, and one-fourth to the _Iarfiné_ and the _Indfiné_—viz., three-fourths of the fourth to the _Iarfiné_, and one-fourth of it to the _Indfiné_. ‘If the _Deirbhfiné_ division has become extinct, three-fourths of its _dibad_ goes to the _Geilfiné_, and one-fourth to the _Iarfiné_ and _Indfiné_’—that is, three-fourths of the fourth to the _Iarfiné_, and a fourth of it to the _Indfiné_. ‘If the _Iarfiné_ division has become extinct, three-fourths of its _dibad_ shall go to the _Deirbhfiné_, and one-fourth of it to the _Geilfiné_ and _Indfiné_—that is, three-fourths of the fourth to the _Geilfiné_, and one-fourth of it to the _Indfiné_. ‘If the _Indfiné_ has become extinct, three-fourths of its _dibad_ shall go to the _Iarfiné_, and one-fourth of it to the _Geilfiné_ and _Deirbhfiné_—that is, three-fourths of the fourth to the _Deirbhfiné_, and one-fourth of it to the _Geilfiné_.