The  next  class — the  fourth — the  freemen  with  little
or  with  no  property,  were  ceiles  or  free  tenants.  They
differed  from  the  bo-aires  only  in  not  being  rich  enough  to
rank  as  aires  or  chiefs  ;  for  the  bo-aires  were  themselves
ceiles  or  rent-payers  ;  and  accordingly,  a  man  of  the  fourth
class  could  become  a  bo-air e  if  he  accumulated  property
enough  :  the  amount  being  laid  down  in  the  Brehon  Law.
These  ceiles  or  tenants,  or  free  rent-payers — corresponding
with  the  old  English  ceorls  or  churls — formed  the  great
body  of  the  farming  class.  They  were  called  aithech,  i.e.
'  plebeian,'  '  farmer,'  '  peasant,'  to  distinguish  them  from
the  aires  or  chieftain  grades  :  and  the  term  feini  or  fene
[faine],  which  means  much  the  same  as  aithech,  was  also
applied  to  them.  Some  few  members  of  the  jeine  were
selected  by  the  king  to  look  after  the  affairs  of  their  im-
mediate district,  or  what  we  should  now  call  a  townland.
"  These  jeine  " — says  the  Gloss  on  the  Law  (v.  15,  17) —
are  brugaid-ia.rm.eTS,  and  the  stewards  of  kings."  These
are  evidently  the  officers  referred  to  in  the  record  about
Ollamh  Fodla,  king  of  Ireland  (FM,  a.m.  3922  :  see  p.  69,
supra),  that  he  appointed  a  chief  over  every  tricha-ched
and  a  brugaid  over  every  baile  or  townland.  These  brugaid-
stewards  or  /m^-stewards  continued  to  be  appointed  and
to  exercise  their  functions  down  to  a  late  time — the  time
of  the  glossator  of  the  Laws  ;  but  the  exact  nature  of  their
functions  is  not  known.
