There is but one allusion in the Welsh Laws to the system of fosterage, but it is sufficient to show that this custom also prevailed among the Welsh tribes. We find in the code of Gwynedd that ‘if an _Uchelwr_ place his son to be reared with the _Aillt_ of a lord, by the permission or by the sufferance of the lord, for a year and a day, that son is to have a son’s share of the _Aillt’s_ land, and ultimately of his property.’[239] The age of the boy, however, is distinguished into only two periods. First, from his baptism till he is seven years of age, during which time his father is to swear and pay for him, except the payment of _Dirwy_ or _Camlwrw_ for him to the king; because the king is not to have any _Dirwy_ or _Camlwrw_ for an error nor for the act of an idiot, and he is not endowed with reason; he must, however, indemnify the sufferer for his property. At the end of seven years he himself is to swear for his acts, and his father is to pay. From the time when a boy is born till he shall be fourteen years of age, he is to be at his father’s platter, and his father lord over him; and he is to receive no punishment but that of his father, and he is not to receive one penny of his property during that time, only in common with his father. At the end of fourteen years the father is to bring his son to the lord and commend him to his charge; and then the youth is to become his man, and to be on the privilege of his lord; and he is himself to answer every claim that may be made on him; and is to possess his own property; thenceforward his father is not to correct him, more than a stranger; and if he should correct him, upon complaint made by the son against him he is subject to _Dirwy_, and is to do him right for the _Saraad_. ‘From that age onward he is of the same privilege with an innate _Boneddig_.’[240] The preceding short analysis of the tribal organisation in its leading features, as presented to us in the ancient Irish and Welsh laws, is an indispensable preliminary to any inquiry into the ancient land tenure of the people of Scotland in Celtic times. Without it we should have been at a loss to discover the source and origin of many of the peculiar features it presents in later times. CHAPTER VI. THE TRIBE IN SCOTLAND. [Sidenote: Early notices of tribal organisation.] In investigating the early social state of the Celtic inhabitants of Great Britain, we possess an advantage which does not attach to that of Ireland. For the Pagan period in the latter country we have no information except what is derived from native tradition; but in Britain we possess in addition a few incidental notices by contemporary writers of other countries, both as regards the native population of the Roman province and the Barbarian nations beyond its limits. These notices, few and general as they are, yet indicate the presence of a social organisation very similar to that of Ireland.