These laws present to us the Cymric people, or Welsh population, who still maintained their independence, as in a more advanced stage of organisation than the Irish tribes are exhibited in the Brehon Laws. We find the land divided into _Talaeth_, or provinces, each under its _Brenhin_, or king, similarly to that of Ireland, and all under a _Brenhin penrhaith_, or supreme king; but while we can trace the original function of the king as judge of his people, the position of king had assumed a more modern aspect both as relates to his power and authority, and to his rights in connection with the land. The whole people are termed the _Cenedl y Gymry_, or race of the Cymry, and we can see that the organisation of each province was based upon an earlier tribal system, and that it must have been formed by a confederation of tribes similar to that of the Irish province. Indications of this earlier tribal system appear to be contained in ‘The Heads of the Social State’ attributed to Dyvnwal Moelmud, a mythic king. These tribes appear as _Llwylh a Cenedl_. We find also the same distinction of the people into bond and free, _Caithion_ and _Rydyon_, the Latin equivalents of which were _Nativi_ and _Liberi_, the latter alone representing the ancient free members of the tribe. These are termed in the Laws _Boneddic Cancwynawl_. They were pure Cymri both by father and mother, and the Latin equivalent was _nobilis ingenuus_. The head of the tribe was the _Pencenedl_, or _prefectus generis_, who is still recognised as a functionary in these Laws. According to the Triads of the Social State, the _Pencenedl_ must be the oldest in the _Cenedl_ so far as the ninth degree of kindred, who is in full strength of body and mind. The same process which in the case of the Irish tribe had created a class of territorial lords or _Flaith_, no doubt gave rise to the similar class whom we find fully developed in the Welsh law. These were the _Uchelwyr_ or _Breyr_, sometimes termed _Mab Uchelwyr_, just as the Irish Flaith appear as _Mac Oclaich_, and their Latin equivalent was _Optimates_. When a family succeeded in retaining possession of the same portion of land for a certain period, they were recognised as proprietors of it, and entered the class of territorial lords. Thus in the Laws of Gwynedd, ‘Whosoever shall claim land and soil by kin and descent, let him show his kin and descent from the stock from whence he is derived; and if he be a fourth man, he is a proprietor because a fourth man becomes a proprietor;’ and in the Laws of Gwent, ‘a _dadenhudd_ is the tilling by a person of land tilled by his father before him. In the fourth degree a person becomes a proprietor,—his father, his grandfather, his great-grandfather, and himself the fourth.’[226] The servile class consisted of two kinds. First, those of native race termed _Taeog_ or _Villanus_, and the _Caeth_ or prædial serf. The former class was analogous to the _Daer Ceile_ or bond tenants, and the latter to the