344 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



or the teacher. Wherefore what the author did was, to allow him two principal branches of 

 the art as from the beginning, i. e. stone-building and wood-building, the most distinguished 

 of these branches to remain as formerly, i. e. the Damhliag, and the Durthech. Twelve cows 

 to him for these, i. e. six cows for each, and to examine his original pay for the other de- 

 partments, and to take a sixth part of the established pay for each of these departments [when 

 not exercised by one and the same person] as his pay. Six cows for ibroracht (making yew 

 vessels?), and six cows for coicthiges (kitchen-building), and six cows for mill-building; take three 

 cows from these, which added to the twelve cows which he has fundamentally, and it makes 

 fifteen cows. Four cows for ship-building, and four cows for barque-building, and four cows for 

 curach-building ; take two cows from these, which added to the fifteen above, will make seventeen 

 cows. Four cows for the making of wooden vessels, i. e. ians and drolmachs (tubs) and vats of oak, 

 and smaller vessels in like manner, and two cows for ruamairecht (plough-making ?) ; a cow from 

 these, added to seventeen cows above, will make eighteen cows. Two cows for causeways, and two 

 cows for cashels, and two cows for clochans (stepping stones) ; a cow from these, added to the eigh- 

 teen above, will make nineteen cows. Two cows for carving, and two cows for crosses, and two 

 cows for chariots ; a cow from these to the nineteen above, makes twenty cows. Two cows for 

 houses of rods, and two cows for shields, and two cows for bridges ; a cow from these added to 

 the twenty above, makes twenty-one cows for the Ollave builder, provided he has all his arts in 

 proficiency." 



It is greatly to be regretted that of the preceding curious passage, which 

 throws so much interesting light upon the state of society in Ireland anterior to 

 the twelfth century, but two manuscript copies have been found, and of these 

 one is probably a transcript from the other, for it seems in the highest degree 

 probable that by the occasional omission or change of a letter the sense of the 

 original commentary has been vitiated. Thus where it is stated that six cows 

 was the payment for kitchen-building, which is the same as that for building a 

 daimhliag, or duirtheach, it would appear much more likely that the word 

 originally used was cloicthiges, or belfry-building, which, we may assume, was 

 a much more important labour than the other, and which, if the word be truly 

 coicthiges, is omitted altogether, though, as I shall show in the succeeding 

 section from another commentary on the Brehon Laws, ranked, amongst the 

 Irish, as one of the most distinguished works of the saer or builder. But till 

 some older or better copy of the passage be found, it must, of course, remain as 

 of no authority in reference to the Round Towers ; and I have only alluded to 

 it with a view to directing attention to the manuscript copies of the Brehon 

 Laws not immediately within my reach. 



The next authority to which I shall refer, for it is too long for insertion, 



