On the Ring Money of the Celta. 17 
before our era. ‘These are no visionary speculations : we have here the remains and 
imperishable reliques of these early times to verify the whole ; and recent investigations 
and discoveries, in a most singularly convincing manner, come to our aid by showing 
that the fresco paintings in the tombs of Egypt exhibit people bringing, as tribute, 
to the foot of the throne of Pharoah, bags of gold and silver rings, at a period 
before the Exodus of the Israelites. 
It is right to observe that many of these weights were taken by me before I had an 
idea that these things were money. 
The Troy weight is said to have been brought to Europe from Palestine and Egypt 
by the Crusaders, and obtained its present name from the town of Troyes, in France, 
where it was first used at the great fair held there. ‘There is reason to believe that it 
is the old Phenician mercantile standard weight which once prevailed all over the 
East, and that, like most other commercial improvements, originated with that great 
commercial people, as they must have first felt the necessity for such a means of ad- 
justment of those commodities which were disposed of by weight. 
The old Celtic (raye) unsha was the exact ounce Troy—it is a compound word 
aon, one, and ye, siath, or the one-sixth part of a given weight, containing the quantity 
of our half pound ‘Troy ; the name of this weight I have not yet been able to ascer- 
tain. The weight of twelve ounces, now called a pound, having eventually prevailed 
in general computation of larger quantities, the word wnsha, as the twelfth part of a 
pound, became the Celtic, and from them the Latin, word signifying the twelfth part 
of anything, even of time. 
I submit the foregoing remarks, if not with reluctance, yet with diffidence ; for 
although I feel satisfied that the evidence sustains all the conclusions I have drawn, I 
am more anxious for truth than for any hypothesis ; and shall be glad if the discussion 
produces a correct result, even if it should be contrary to what I myself have fondly 
fancied to be irrefragibly established. 
YOL. XVII. EE 
