The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1882-01-05
The Early Kings.

I believe, upon a good deal of evi-
dence, that ancientKings we're itinerant.
travelling, or ambulatory personages.
When they became stationary they gen
orally perished. The primitive Kings OF
communities confined within the walls,
like the old Athenian and the old Roman
Kings, soon dropped out of sight. Per
haps, as Mr.. Grote has suggested, they
lived too much in full view of their sub
jects for their humble state to command
much respect when the belief in their
sacredness had been lost. But the more
barbarous King of communities spread
over wide territory was constantly NOV
ing about it; or, if he did not, he, too,
perished, as did the Kings called the
rois fGineaaats of the Franks. tt
If I were called upon to furnish the
oldest evidence of these habits of the
ancient King, I should refer to those
Irish records, of which the value is only
beginning to be discerned, for, whatever
may be said by the theorists who explain
all national characteristics by something
in the race or the blood, themost ancient
Irish laws and institutions are nothing
more than the most ancient Germanic
laws and institutions at an ea.lier stage
of barbarism. ...... r..-
Now, when Englishmen like Edmund
Spencer first began to put their observa-
tions of Ireland into writing-at the end
of the sixteenth century-there was one
Irish practice of which they spoke with
the keenest Indignation. This was what
they called the cuttings" and "cosher-
periodical circuits among their tenantry
fa,s oE kI,oYr
company at the tenants expense. It
was, in fact, only a late survival of COM
mon incidents in the daily life of the
barbarous Chief or King, who had no
tax-gatherers to collect his dues, but
went himself to exact them, living
as a matter of right, while he moved, at
the cost of his subjects. The theory of
the Irish law was, though it is impossi-
BILE to say how far it corresponded with
the facts, that the Chief had earned his
right by stocking the elansman's land
with cattle or sheep. s
We find a highly glorified account of
the same practice IN ancient records OF
the life and state of those Irish Chiefs,
who called themselves Kings. "The
King of Munster" says the "Book of
Rights" attended by the chief
Princes Of his Kingdom, began his visits
to the King of Connaught, and presented
to him one hundred steeds, one hundred
suite of military array, one hundred
swords, and one hundred caps, in return
for which the King was to entertain him
for two months at his palace at Anachan,
and then escort him to the terri
tories of Tyroonnell. He presented to
the King of Tyrconnell twenty steeds,
twenty complete armor, and twenty
cloaks, for which the King supported
him and the nobility of Munster for one
month, and afterward escorted him to
the Principality of Tyrone"
The King of Munster is then described
as proceeding through Tyrone, Ulster,
Meath, Leinster, and Ossory, every
where bestowing gifts ON the rulers, and
receiving entertainment in return. I sus-
pect the entertainment is of more
historical reality than the royal gifts.
The practice, however, described with
this splendor by the chronicler or
bard is plainly the same as the cut
ting and coshering which Spencer and
others denounce as one of the curses of
Ireland. d.-Sar Henry s. Maine in the
F0rtnightiy Repie,U.