tenancy-at-will.[278] By that time, however, the shifting character of the allotment had probably undergone a certain qualification, for the earliest law laid down in the first year of the reign of Alexander the Second seems to have been directed against the unsettled condition of these _Attach Tuatha_, and their predilection for the listless indolence of a pastoral life. Every “Bondman” was ordered to plough and sow the land in the same locality, or _Vill_, he had occupied in the preceding year; all who had held no land but were in the possession of five cows or upwards--in other words, of more than a pound--were bidden to take land from their lord and raise a corn crop for his benefit; whilst the proprietor of less than that amount of cattle was to sell his oxen, if he had any, to those who could use them in tillage, and work as a labourer in digging and sowing, equally for the benefit of his lord.[279] The dependance of the _Duine-Uasal_ for their support upon the population thus attached to the soil, ensured to the latter a certain amount of consideration; for it was on his “native-men” that the Tighern quartered his kinsmen and retainers, and from the same agricultural class he levied his rents. The necessity of a class of this description in such an age was its safeguard, up to a certain point, from extortion and oppression; they were protected like a sheep for its fleece, as long as their Tighern was in a condition to defend them, the want of fixed and settled rights being invariably most felt when society is in a state of transition.