It was a free tenure, subject to the obligation to pay Gwestva, or 'food rent,' to the chief, and to some incidents which marked an almost feudal relationship to the chief, viz.:—
(1) The Amobr, or marriage fee of a female.
(2) The Ebediw,[233] or death payment (heriot).
(3) Aid in building the king's castles.
(4) Joining his host in his enterprises in the country whenever required, out of the country six weeks only in the year.[234]
These were the usual accompaniments of free tenure everywhere, and are no special marks of serfdom.
The tunc pound in lieu of it.
Several homesteads were grouped together in 'maenols' or 'trevs' for the purpose of the payment of the Gwestva, as we shall see by-and-by. This consisted in Gwent, of a horse-load of wheat-flour, an ox, seven threaves of oats, a vat of honey, and 24 pence of silver.[235] And as the money value of the Gwestva was always one pound, so that its money equivalent was known as 'the tunc pound,' holdings of family land were spoken of, as late as the fourteenth century, as 'paying tunc' [236]—the gwestva, or tunc pound in lieu [p196] of it, being the distinctive tribute of the free tribesmen.
Such was the tenure of the family land, and these were the services of the free tribesmen.
A free tribal tenure.