Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 215 



de eleemosyna mea, & viginti siclos de eleemosyna patris familiae Areidce, & viginti de eleemosyna 

 mea, & per singulos Anachoritas tres siolos de puro argento : ut illi omnes orent pro me, & pro 

 Domino Ecge Carolo, ut Deus ilium conservet ad tutelam sanctae suse Ecclesia?, & ad laudem & 

 gloriarn sui nominis." Sylloge, p. 52. 



I confess that to me this passage, written before the Danes had coined 

 money in Ireland, affords a strong presumption that minted money was not only 

 known but in use in Ireland at the time when it was written, and that the 

 money designated as sicli must have been a description of coin then current 

 not only in France but also in Ireland. It is true that Colgan, and after him 

 Harris and Archdall, state that a siclus or shekel in silver was a coin about half 

 an ounce in weight, and of the value of sixteen pence ; but this, as I shall 

 prove, was obviously an error, arising out of the supposition that by the term 

 siclus was meant a piece of the size and value of the Hebrew shekel, whereas 

 it is certain that no coin of this kind was current in Europe during the middle 

 ages. The real meaning of the word siclus, as understood by the Irish, and 

 the value of the coin which it designated at this period, are, however, distinctly 

 pointed out in a tract of the Brehon Laws, relating to fines and amercements, 

 preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, class H. 3, 18, p. 426, 

 col. b, and in which the fine upon the owner of a cow that has killed a bonds- 

 man, or bondswoman, is thus stated : 



" IDao muj no cuiiial po oip in aj opjaip ano, appennech bep aj. Cpicha pijal n-aipjjio mo. 

 Sicolup quapi pcpipulup, o p6 leir-pinjinoe jabap mo o copach in comaip, 7 na pe leic- 

 pmjmoe ip cpi lun-pmjjinne in pcpepaill." 



" If it be a bondman or bondwoman that has been killed by the cow, the cow is forfeited (till 

 reparation be made by the owner). Thirty sigah of silver is the fine. Sicolus quasi scripulus, from 

 six half pinginns being its value from the beginning of enumeration, and these six half pinginns 

 make the three full pinginns of the screpall." 



The value of the same coin is given in another MS. in the same Library, 

 H. 3, 17, p- 645, somewhat differently, thus : 



" Siculup quapi pepelicop, 6 p6 lec-penom^ib jabap in o copach in comap; no pe lec- 

 penomje ip cpi lan-penomj, na cpi Ian penoinj ip pcpepall." 



" Siculus quasi seselicos, from six halfpennies being its value from the beginning of enumera- 

 tion [the lowest denomination] ; the six half pennings make three full pennings, and the three full 

 pennings make one screpall." 



From the above passages then it clearly appears that the word sigal was a 



