Post #975
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📖 Ancient Restoration The swearing of oaths on a saint's relic was common practice in early Ireland. The dead ancestor or saint acted as a witness to the promise, so if broken, they would incur the fury of the dead! Old Irish for relic, minn, became modern Irish for oath, mionn.
Under Brehon law, dead ancestors could be called upon to judge in property disputes. One law describes how a claimant to the land must walk over the family burial mound without injury or death. The dead would repel outsiders, but support their own descendants.