names are corrupted from _Sliocht Enri Caoich_, or the sept of Henry the Blind; _Sliocht Ceallaigh_, or sept of the Kellies; _Sliocht Aodh breac_, or sept of Hugh the Freckled; _Sliocht Briuin buidhe_, or sept of Brian the Yellow; _Sliocht Owen mhic Cuinn_, or sept of Owen son of Conn.[223] Sir John Davis, in his Letter to the Earl of Salisbury, written about the same time, gives us a very clear account of the position of these septs in the counties of Fermanagh and Cavan. In Fermanagh he derived his information from certain of the clerks or scholars of that country, who knew all the septs and families and their branches, and the dignity of one sept above another, and what families or persons were chief of every sept, and who were next, and who were of third rank, and so forth, till they descended to the most inferior man in all the barony. Moreover, they took upon them to tell ‘what quantity of land every man ought to have by the custom of their country, which is of the nature of gavelkind, whereby, as their septs or families did multiply, their possessions have been from time to time divided and subdivided, and broken into so many small parcels as almost every acre of land had a several owner, who termeth himself a lord and his portion of land his country.’ ‘Notwithstanding, as McGuire himself had a chiefry over all the country, and some demesne that did ever pass to him only who carried that title, so was there a chief of every sept who had certain services, duties, and demesnes that ever passed to the Tanist of that sept, and never was subject to division.’ And in his return of the state of the county of Cavan he gives the following general account:—‘In the Irish countries, where the custom of Tanistry is not extinguished, the tenures are everywhere alike. There is first a general chieftain of every country or territory, which hath some demesne and some household provisions yielded unto him by all the inhabitants under him; every sept or surname hath a particular chieftain or Tanist, which hath likewise his peculiar demesne and duties, and these possessions go by succession or election, entirely without any division; but all the other lands holden by the inferior inhabitants are partable in course of gavelkind, wherein there is no difference made between legitimate sons and bastards.’[224] [Sidenote: The Tribe in Wales.]