The inevitable tendency of such a state of society was to call into existence a class of lesser _Duine-Uasal_, clinging to the privileges of gentle birth, and naturally averse to sink to the level of the agricultural peasantry. The distant kinsman, removed beyond the limit of the privileged branches of the family, was ever ready to dedicate his sword to the service of the Senior of his race, and was quartered upon the peasantry of the district as an _Amas_ or _Bonnach_, a member of the _Arimannia_ or _Hird_; for he was always certain of a welcome in an age in which the numbers of such a following, useless except for purposes of aggression, were the source and evidence of a chieftain’s power. Expansion thus became a vital necessity, the very numbers of a kindred, which entailed the obligation, generally ensuring success in their encroachments on a weaker neighbour; and the same causes that impelled one German tribe upon another, or precipitated them in one mighty wave upon the Roman frontier, ensured a normal state of warfare amongst the Celts. Scotland was, however, in a far less disorganized condition than Ireland at this period; and though the royal authority was comparatively of little use in repressing internal warfare amongst the mountains of _Moravia_ and Argyle, it was of greater power in the more open districts of Scotland proper, and the south, where the magnates no longer mustered their followers for “a hosting beyond the frontier” except at the sovereign’s command. Oppression and encroachment had taken the place of open warfare, and they were content to quarter their followers upon a weaker neighbour, and to relieve the native-men of their own district by moving about from place to place under pretence of travelling, or of attending upon the royal court, with a retinue numerous enough to support their own dignity, and ensure for themselves and followers the necessary hospitality known as “herbary.” It was to protect themselves against the abuses of such a system, which was long in full force amidst the mountains of the north and west, that the lesser barons at a later period entered into bonds of _Manred_--or of allegiance in return for protection--with the greater magnates, whose power and dignity were thus enhanced; such engagements being only the _chartered_ form of the same tie that united, in an earlier period, the Gallic and Germanic _clientes_ to the greater confederacies upon whom they were dependant: for wherever the circumstances of the age called it forth, the principle of clientage was sure to be developed.[282]