When we come down, however, to Christian times, we find the existence of the _Tuath_ both as the tribe and as the tribe territory fully recognised as characterising the social organisation of the population of Gaelic race. The ancient tract, termed the _Amra Choluim Chilli_, of Dallan Forgaill, preserved in the _Liabhar na h-Uidre_, contains repeated references to the _Tuaths_ both in the sense of tribes and of their territories, and as regards the Pictish nation as well as the Dalriadic colony. Thus we are told that Saint Columba ‘illuminated countries and territories’ (_Tir agus Tuatha_), and that from him ‘the _Tuaths_ used to be disciplined.’ Again, when it is said, ‘Through an idolatrous _Tuath_ he meditated criminality,’ which is explained to mean, ‘when going through the _Tuath_ or territories of the idols he would know their criminality towards God,’ it can only refer to the pagan nation of the Picts; and when we are told that ‘he sought seven _Tuaths_, viz., the five _Tuaths_ of Erin, and two _Tuaths_ in Alban,’ the latter must be identified with the territory given him by the Picts, who, according to Bede, inhabited the districts adjacent to Iona. In another passage, when St. Columba is referred to as ‘the son of Fedelimid for whom used to fight or whom used to serve the twenty _Tuaths_,’ the word is probably used in the sense of tribes, and it is still more plainly used in this sense, as existing among the southern Picts, when he is described as ‘the teacher who used to teach the tribes who were around Tai, that is, the name of a river in Alban,’ which can obviously be identified with the river Tay. In another passage they are referred to as the people of the Tay (_Lucht Toi_); and the _Tuaths_ or tribes are indicated as existing both among the Dalriads and the Picts, when he is called ‘the champion who bound new things for the alliance of Conall, that is, the champion of the new things is not here for alliance, that is, for confirming the alliance of Conall, that is, between the _Tuaths_ of Conall within, or at making their alliance with other _Tuaths_ externally.’[246] Conall was the king of Dalriada at the time when St. Columba came over from Ireland to Scotland, and the other _Tuaths_ or tribes which were external to his kingdom can only refer to the neighbouring tribes of the Picts. The undoubted antiquity of this tract gives great value to these incidental references to the existence of the _Tuath_ or tribe, not only among the Scots of Dalriada, where we might expect to meet them, but also among the two great races of the northern and southern Picts, and this is confirmed by other authorities of a later date. Thus, in the tract called ‘The Genealogy of Corca Laidhe,’ referred to in a previous chapter, we read that ‘Irial Glumnar, son of Conall Cearnach, had two sons, viz., Forc and Iboth. Rechtgidh Righdearg led them into Alban. They gained great battles, so that great