in Palestine, in ancient Gaul, in the British islands. Hence their
hostile encounters had always for object movable plunder of any
kind, chiefly cattle; never conquest nor annexation of territory.
The word "preying," which is generally used for their expeditions,
explains their nature at once. It was only in the event of the
extinction of a clan that the topography was altered, and frequently
a general repartition of land among neighboring tribes took place.

It is true, when a surplus population compelled them to send abroad
swarms of their youth, that the conquest of a foreign country became
an absolute necessity. But, on such occasions it was outside of Celtic
limits that they spread themselves, taking possession of a territory
not their own. They almost invariably respected the land of other
clans of the same race, even when most hostile to them; exceptions
to this rule are extremely rare. It was thus that they sent large
armies of their young men into Northern Italy, along the Danube,
into Grecian Albania and Thrace, and finally into the very centre
of Asia Minor. The fixing of the geographical position of each tribe
was, therefore, a rule among them; and in this they differed from
nomadic nations, such as the Tartars in Asia and even the North
American Indians, whose hold on the land was too slight to offer any
prolonged resistance to invaders. Hence the position of the Gallic
_civitates_ was definite, and, so to speak, immovable, as we may see
by consulting the maps of ancient Gaul at any time anterior to its
thorough conquest by the Romans; not so among the German tribes,
whose positions on the maps must differ according to time.

We have already seen that so sacred were the limits of the clan
districts, that one of the chief duties of ollamhs and shanachies
was to know them and see them preserved.