Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 219 



tury, would appear from the following passage in Cormac's Glossary, under the 

 word pisire, the ancient Irish name for the ouncel, or steel-yard. 



" PT'P e > ' P'r~ al P e > ' c P anD leran-ceno btp oc comap oen pinjinne coriiaip, .1. comrpoimn 

 .uii. n-jpame pip-cpuirnechca. pip, Din, amm in cpamo, no in carhain ; pip, Din, amm DO pin- 

 gmo; oen pinjino, Din, aipe in chpaino pin." 



" Pisire, i. v. pis-air e, i. e. a broad-headed beam, which is for weighing one pinginn of weight, 

 i. e. the weight of seven grains of pure wheat. Pis, then, is the name of the beam, or the trunk, 

 andjoz's is, also, a name for the pinginn; because one pinginn is what that beam weighs." 



The evidence furnished by the preceding passage is further corroborated 

 by the following curious notice, in an ancient sermon on the betrayal of Christ 

 by Judas, preserved in the Leabhar Breac, in the Library of the Royal Irish 

 Academy, in which the writer enters into a calculation of the value, in Irish 

 money, of the thirty pieces which Judas was paid for his treachery : 



" Cpom, cjia, ooBapca na cennai jecca, in can eepta a cerpuime oo'n cethpamao unga. In 

 ra. n-aipjennee cucpar luoaioe pop lipac Cpipc DO luoap aripeccnach, .1. occ penjmoe co leir, 

 lap mnviiip coicclimo, ip eo pil in cec aipjenc oib, lap na pcpibeno la ppuicib na n-ebpaioe." 

 Fol. 73, a, b. 



" Great, indeed, the foulness of the purchase, when the fourth ounce wanted a quarter. The 

 thirty argentei [denarii] which the Jews gave the unfortunate Judas for betraying Christ : i. e. 

 eight pinginns and a half, after the general enumeration, is what is in each argenteus of them, 

 according to the writings of the learned among the Hebrews." 



According to the previous calculation, if we allow sixty grains to each of the 

 argentei, which is the usual weight of the Roman argenteus, or denarius, then 

 current in Jerusalem, it will be seen, that the unga, or ounce, contained four 

 hundred and eighty grains, and the pinginn, or penny, seven grains and one- 

 seventeenth. 



Should it be objected, that if the Irish had had minted pieces of these deno- 

 minations, previously to the Danish irruptions, allusions to them would be made 

 in the authentic annals of the country, the answer is, that the annals relating to 

 those early times are so brief and meagre, that they preserve to us little be- 

 yond the dates of battles, and of the deaths of distinguished men ; and that 

 though the word aipgeo, i. e. silver, the only one used to designate money of 

 any description at the present day, like the French argent, from the circumstance 

 of the ancient minted pieces being of silver only, does frequently occur, 



2F 2 



