Having said thus much respecting the laws of succession and marriage, we proceed next to consider the gradation of ranks which appears to have existed amongst the Highlanders, whether in relation to the lands of which they were proprietors, or the clans of which they were members. And here it may be observed, that the classification of society in the Highlands seems to have borne a close resemblance to that which prevailed in Wales and in Ireland amongst cognate branches of the same general race. In the former country there were three different tenures of land, and nine degrees of rank. Of these tenures, the first was termed Maerdir, signifying a person who has jurisdiction, and included three ranks; the second was called Uchilordir, or property, and likewise consisted of three ranks; and the third, denominated Priodordir, or native, included that portion of the population whom we would now call tenants, divided into the degrees of yeomen, labourers, and serfs. A similar order of things appears to have prevailed in Ireland, where, in the classification of the people, we recognise the several degrees of Fuidir, Biadhtach, and Mogh. In the Highlands, the first tenure included the three degrees of Ard Righ, Righ, and Mormaor; the Tighern or Thane, the Armin and the Squire, were analogous to the three Welsh degrees included in the Uchilordir; and a class of persons, termed native men, were evidently the same in circumstances and condition with the Priodordir of Wales. These native men were obviously the tenants or farmers on the property, who made a peculiar acknowledgment, termed _calpe_, to the chief or head of their clan. For this we have the authority of Martin, who informs us that one of the duties “payable by all the tenants to their chiefs, though they did not live upon his lands,” was called “calpich,” and that “there was a standing law for it,” denominated “calpich law.” The other duty paid by the tenants was that of _herezeld_, as it was termed, which, along with calpe, was exigible if the tenant happened to occupy more than the eighth part of a davoch of land. That such was the peculiar acknowledgment of chiefship incumbent on the native men, or, in other words, the clan tribute payable by them in acknowledgment of the power and in support of the dignity of the chief, appears from the bonds of amity or _manrent_, in which we find them obliging themselves to pay “_calpis_ as native men ought and should do to their chief.”