The tightness of the tribal bond is shown still more clearly by the statement that the chieftain himself is not competent to forgive, so as to bind his successors, the food-rent due from the tenant. The food-rent is free to the successors of the chief; for the chief is not competent to forgive the payment of what supplies his house (p. 213). So much we gather from the chapter on _saer_-rath. Now as to _daer_-rath (p. 223). No one was bound to take _daer_ stock from any one, not even from his own chieftain or king. Taking daer stock was therefore a matter of contract, and a contract by a tribesman affected his _fine_ or kindred. The stock is received by the tenant either with or without the knowledge of the _fine_, for if it was unknown to them they could impugn his contract, but if it was within their knowledge, though the stock be ever so great, it is fastened upon them. The fine had a voice, presumably lest it should be found that cattle in their family herd, unknown to them, might belong to some outside chieftain. And further, if continued for three lives, the obligation might become permanent, as in the case of saer stock. [Sidenote: ‘Fuidhir’ tenants become _adscripti glebæ_ after three generations.] Besides these _daer_ and _saer_ tenants who had taken stock from their chieftain or king, and who seem to have been to a great extent _adscripti glebæ_, there is mention of _fuidhir_ tenants. They seem to be strangers, admitted, like the Cymric alltuds, upon a chieftain’s land, and, like the Cymric alltuds, free to move away, until by residence for three generations they also have become recognised as freemen, and at the same time _adscripti glebæ_. In the tract, ‘Divisions of the Tribe of a Territory,’[73] is the following mention of the fuidhir tenants, confirming what has been said above. It occurs in the commentary:-- His fuidhir tenants, _i.e._ they become free during the time of three persons; the fourth man is called a daer-bothach person; the _fifth is a sencleithe_ person. The fifth person would be the great-great-grandson of the original fuidhir. Further on (p. 287) is the following:-- The families of the fuidhir tenants are subject to manifold divisions. The son is enriched in the same ratio as his father, and the father does not sell anything to the prejudice of his sons, grandsons, great-grandsons, or great-great-grandsons. [Sidenote: The fifth generation become ‘sencleithe.’] The chief point of interest is that the men of the fourth generation of fuidhirs, according to the above-quoted passages, became _daer-bothach_ persons--half free men--and the fifth generation _sencleithe_, so that the family, like the Cymric stranger, grew into freedom in four or five generations.