The most important business of the assembly, however, consisted of the making of new laws and the revision of old ones for the province for the three succeeding years; and, as the Rig and his officers were always in attendance, the hearing and decision of serious causes on appeal from the inferior courts. In the presence of the sovereign and his court the greatest order and decorum were enjoined, and whoever was found to disturb the public peace by violence or fraud was summarily condemned to death; the offence being in some sort adjudged treason, and not condonable by eric fine. The time not devoted to law-making, trials, and traffic was occupied in amusement and various sorts of pastimes; and if the ancient people of Erinn had as much relish for fun and frolic as their descendants, we can well imagine what mirth, sociability and interchange of opinions must have prevailed among such a light-hearted multitude, whose only opportunity for enjoyment and mutual recognition occurred every third year. An old poem, “which,” says O'Curry, “I believe to have been contemporary with the last celebration of the feast, if not of even a more ancient date,” thus enumerates the different classes of persons who attended on such occasions, and the intellectual wares they brought with them for the delectation of the gathering:
“Trumpets, Cruits,[114] wide-mouthed horns,
Cusigs Timpanists, without weariness,
Poets and petty rhymesters;
“Fenian tales of Find[115]—an untiring entertainment—
Destructions, cattle-preys, courtships,
Inscribed tablets and books of trees,[116]
Satires and sharp-edged runes;
“Proverbs, maxims, royal precepts,
And the youthful instruction of Fithal;