But the native men of Highland properties must be carefully distinguished from the _cumerlach_, who, like the _kaeth_ of the Welsh, were merely a species of serfs, or _adscripti glebæ_. The former could not be removed from the land at the will of their lord, but there was no restriction laid on their personal liberty; the latter might be removed at the pleasure of their lord, but their personal liberty was restrained, or rather abrogated. The native man was the tenant who cultivated the soil, and as such possessed a recognised estate in the land which he occupied. As long as he performed the requisite services he could not be removed, nor could a greater proportion of labour or produce be exacted from him than custom or usage had fixed. It appears, therefore, that these possessed their farms, or holdings, by a sort of hereditary right, which was not derived from their lord, and of which, springing as it did from immemorial usage, and the very constitution of clanship, it was not in his power to deprive them. The _cumerlach_ were the cottars and actual labourers of the soil, who, possessing no legal rights either of station or property, were in reality absolute serfs. The changes of succession, however, occasionally produced important results, illustrative of the peculiarities above described. “When a Norman baron,” says Mr Skene, “obtained by succession, or otherwise, a Highland property, the Gaelic _nativi_ remained in actual possession of the soil under him, but at the same time paid their _calpes_ to the natural chief of their clan, and followed him in war. When a Highland chief, however, acquired by the operation of the feudal succession, an additional property which had not been previously in the possession of his clan, he found it possessed by the _nativi_ of another race. If these _nativi_ belonged to another clan which still existed in independence, and if they chose to remain on the property, they did so at the risk of being placed in a perilous situation, should a feud arise between the two clans. But if they belonged to no other independent clan, and the stranger chief had acquired the whole possessions of their race, the custom seems to have been for them to give a bond of _manrent_ to their new lord, by which they bound themselves to follow him as their chief, and make him the customary acknowledgment of the _calpe_. They thus became a dependent sept upon a clan of a different race, while they were not considered as forming a part of that clan.”[125]