still existing in Canada. Their "reservations," as they are called,
having been legalized by the British Government at the time of
the conquest from the French, the territory assigned to them would
have remained in their occupancy forever in the midst of the
ever-shifting possessions of the white race, had not the Ottawa
Parliament lately "allowed" those reservations to be divided
among the families of the tribes, with power for each to dispose
of its portion, a power which will soon banish them from the
country of their ancestors.

The preceding observations do not conflict in the least with what
is generally said of inheritance by "gavel kind," whereby the
property was equally divided among the sons to the exclusion of
the daughters; as it is clear that the property to be thus divided
was only movable and personal property.

But after the _land_ we must consider the _persons_ under the
clan-system. Under this head we shall examine briefly:

I. The political offices, such as the dignities of Ard-Righ or
supreme monarch, of the provincial kings, and of the subordinate
chieftains.

II. The state of the common people.

III. The bondsmen or slaves.

All literary or civil offices, not political, were hereditary.
Hence the professions of ollamh, shanachy, bard, brehon, physician,
passed from father to son--a very injudicious arrangement apparently,