their own rank, the _ri-mor-tuatha_--king of the territory so composed, to whose office a still larger area of free land was attached. In turn, kings of this class, with their respective sub-kings and _flaiths_, elected from among the _riogh-dhamhna_ (ree-uch-dhowna) = _materia principum_ or "king-timber", a royal _fine_ specially educated and trained, a _rì-cuighidh_ (ree coo-ee-hee) supreme over five _ri-mor-tuathas_--roughly, a fourth of Ireland. These, with their respective principal supporters, elected the _ard-ri_--"supreme king", of Ireland, who for ages held his court and national assemblies at Tara and enjoyed the kingdom of Meath for his mensal land. Usually the election was not direct to the kingship, but to the position of _tanaiste_--"second" (in authority), heir-apparent to the kingship. This was also the rule in the learned professions and "noble" arts, which were similarly endowed with free land. The most competent among those specially trained, whether son or outsider, should succeed to the position and land. All such land was legally indivisible and inalienable and descended in its entirety to the successor, who might, or might not, be a relative of the occupant. The beneficiaries were, however, free to retain any land that belonged to them as private individuals. Membership of the clan was an essential qualification for every position; but occasionally two clans amalgamated, or a small _fine_, or desirable individual, was co-opted into the clan--in other words, naturalized. The rules of kinship determined _eineachlann_ (ain-yach-long)--"honor value", the assessed value of status, with its correlative rights, obligations, and liabilities in connection with all matters civil and criminal; largely supplied the place of contract; endowed members of the clan with birthrights; and bound them into a compact social, political, and mutual insurance copartnership, self-controlled and self-reliant. _Eineachlann_ rested on the two-fold basis of kinship and property, expanding as a clansman by acquisition of property and effluxion of time progressed upward from one grade to another; diminishing if he sank; vanishing if for crime he was expelled from the clan.