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 246 BREIION LAWS BREI8AOH duties of parent and child are minutely defined and carefully guarded. There is also found a universal respect and tenderness toward wo- men, a thing rare in that age. Here is one pas- sage from the Senchus : " In the connection of equal property, if with equal land and cattle and household stuff, and if their marriage state be equally free and lawful, the wife in this case is called the wife of equal rank. The contract made hy either party is not a lawful contract without the consent of the other, except in cases of contracts tending equally to the wel- fare of both ; such as the alliance of co-tillage with a lawful tribe when they (the couple) have not the means themselves of doing the work of ploughing ; the taking of land ; the collection of food ; the gathering for the festi- vals; the buying of breeding cattle; the col- lecting of house furniture; the collecting of litters of pigs ; the buying of stacks and other necessaries. . . . Each of the two parties has the power to give refection and feast according to their respective dignity." The maxims of law relating to the enforcement of the rights of women are very precise. In case of separa- tion, adequate protection was thrown around the wife's right of property. If her property was equal to that of her husband at the time of marriage, she took an equal moiety of the collective lands, goods, and chattels, and in case of dairy produce and the proceeds of the loom two thirds. If the property had originally be- longed wholly to the husband, the wife was entitled to one third on her separation ; and if it had been her own before marriage, to two thirds. The institution of the family, on which all clanship rests, is not only found here sur- rounded'by much sanctity and careful guardian- ship, but the family relation is even extended outside of the mere household, by two institu- tions called fosterage and gossipred. When a child was put out to be fostered in another family of the same clan, he grew up with two mothers and two sets of brothers and sisters, and often was more attached to the foster mother and foster brother than to those of his own household. It was a relation well known in other nations of the west, especially among those other Gael, the Highlanders of Scotland ; but nowhere was it regulated by such elabo- rate laws, as to the food, clothing, and educa- tion of the foster child, and its training, if a boy, in all manly exercises, if a girl, in femi- nine accomplishments suitable to their degree, as it may here be found regulated by the bre- hons. Goesipred, or the relation between a child and his godfathers and godmothers, was also a substantial and legal tie, inferring obliga- tions, not a mere sentimental notion calling only for christening presents. Then there was a literary fosterage, in use only among the pro- fessional classes, that is, ihejileas, ollamhs, and Irehom ; concerning which here is a curious extract: "The social connection that is con- sidered between the foster pupil and the liter- ary foster father is, that the latter is to instruct him without reserve, and to prepare him for his degree, and to chastise him without sever- ity, and to feed and clothe him while he is learning his profession, unless he obtains it from another person, and from the school of Fenius Forsaidh onward this custom prevails ; and the foster pupil is to assist his tutor in poverty and to assist him in his old age, and the honor price of the degree for which he pre- pares him and all the gains of his. art while he is learning it, and the first earnings of his art after leaving the house of his tutor, are to be given to the tutor." i:ili:ill.i;uil. Bernhard Ton, a priest of Mentz, who visited Palestine about 1483, died in 1497. On his return to Germany he wrote in Latin an account of his travels, which was published in several editions before his death. This work was accompanied by engravings of the scenery, costumes, and animals of the Holy Land, and contained several oriental alphabets, said to have been the first ever printed. BREISACH. I. Alt, a town of Germany, in Baden, on the Rhine, 12 m. W. of Freiburg; Alt Breisaeh.