murderer, divided into nine degrees; his brother paying the greatest, and the ninth in relationship the least. The fine thus levied was in the same proportions distributed among the relations of the victim. A person beyond the ninth descent formed a new family; every family was represented by its elder, and these elders from every family were delegates to the national council"
Give me your Swords.—Page 21.
This modesty, in disclaiming praise, and attaching merit to others, was one of the most esteemed qualities of knighthood. Ste. Palaye quotes from Olivier de la Marche (Mém. i 315), a contest of generosity somewhat similar to that between Owain and Gwalchmai "Jacques de Lalain et Piétois, en 1450, ayant fait armes à pied, se renverserent lun sur Tautre; ils furent relevés par les escortes et amenés aux juges qui les firent toucher ensemble en Signe de paiz. Comme Lalain, par modestie, voulut envoyer son braclet, suivant la convention faite pour le prix, Pietois déclara qu'ayant ete aussi bien que lui porté par terre, il se croiroit également obligé de lui donner le sieo. Ce nouveau combat de politesse finit par ne plus parler de bracelet, et par former une etroite liaison d'amitié entre ces genereux enuemis."—(I. 150.)
Banquet.—Page 21.
A feast which took three years to prepare, and three months to consume, appears in our degenerate days as something quite enormous; but it is a trifle to what we read in another of the Mabinogion, where a party spend eighty years in listening to the soogs of the birds of Bhianon, that charm away the remembrance of their sorrows.
A Damsel entered, upon a bay Horse.—Page 21.
The custom of riding into a hall, while the Lord and his guests sat at meat, the memory of which is still preserved in the coronation ceremonials of this country, might be illustrated by innumerable passages of ancient Romance and History. But I shall content myself with a quotation from Chaucer*s beautiful and half-told Tale of Cambuscan.
" And so befell that after the thridde cours
While that this king sit thus in his nobley,
Herking his mioistralles hir thinges pley
