The _tribesmen_ are men of the tribal blood, _i.e._ of equal blood with the chief. They, therefore, do not at all resemble serfs. They are more like manorial lords of lordships split up and divided by inheritance, than serfs. They are not truly allodial holders, for they hold tribal land; but they have no manorial lord over them. Their chief is their elected chief, not their manorial lord. When Irish chieftains claim to be owners of the tribal land in the English sense, and set up manorial claims over the tribesmen, they are disallowed by Sir John Davies. When Wales is [p238] conquered, the _tunc pound_ is paid by the free tribesmen direct to the Prince of Wales, the substituted chieftain of the tribe, and the tribesmen remain freeholders, with no mesne lord between him and them.[311] So it would have been also in Ireland if the plans of Sir John Davies had been permanently carried out.[312] «The taeogs.» The _taeogs_ are not generally the serfs of the free tribesmen, but, if serfs at all, of the chief. They are more like Roman _coloni_ than mediæval serfs. But they are easily changed into serfs. In Ireland the _mensal land_ on which they live is allowed by Sir John Davies to be (by a rough analogy) called the chief's _demesne land_. In Wales they are called in Latin documents _villani_; but they become after the Conquest the villani, not of manorial lords, but of the Prince of Wales, and they still live in separate trevs from the tribesmen.[313] «The slaves.» These, then, are the three orders in tribal life; while the slaves in household or field service, and more or less numerous, are, like the cattle, bought and sold, and reckoned as chattels alike under the tribal and the manorial systems. And we may go still further. These three tribal orders of men, with their large households and cattle in the more or less nomadic stage of the tribal system, move about from place to place, and wherever they [p239] go, what may be called tribal houses must be erected for them. The tribal house is in itself typical of their tribal and nomadic life. It is of the same type and pattern for all their orders, but varying in size according to the gradation in rank of the occupier. «The tribal house.» «The _gwelys_, or _lecti_.» «The household.» «The chief.»