In spite of the philological difficulty in making örtug = 10 ewes, it is very remarkable that this value corresponds so accurately with the value of a cow, which I independently found for it. I have already pointed out that 10 sheep were the usual value of a cow. So it was at Rome in 451 B.C. and so it is with the Modern Ossetes. The ox fit for the yoke was probably worth 20 lambs or 5 sheep in Lusitania[459], and as we saw that in the Welsh Laws the ox when fit for the yoke was worth half a full-grown cow, the Lusitanian cow was worth 10 sheep. So also at Athens, when Plutarch[460] says an ox was worth 5 sheep, he probably means an ox fit for the yoke, the cow being worth 10 sheep. In the Brehon Laws 8 sheep go to the cow, but as I have already pointed out the insulated position of Ireland would tend to cause a variation in prices from those on the mainland of Europe. Thus we see from the story of St Finnian that gold must have been worth only three times its weight in silver in Ireland in the early centuries of our era. For the price of a slave was an ounce of gold, whilst in the Brehon Laws it is 3 ounces of silver. It might be said that we cannot prove that this was the value of a slave in gold and silver at any one time, and that silver may have been much cheaper at an earlier date. When we recollect that silver has never existed in any quantity in Ireland, and that where it does exist it can only be obtained by systematic mining, a thing impossible in the eternal turmoil of Ireland, and also bear in mind that when Japan was opened to Europeans in this century gold was exchanged for three times its weight in silver, we need not think such a relation at all unlikely in ancient Ireland. The paucity of silver ornaments in the Royal Irish Academy Museum confirms this opinion. But the evidence from the Penitentials shows that silver was scarce at a comparatively still early date in Ireland[461]. Thus XII altilia vel XIII sicli praetium unius cuiusque ancillae.
I have already shown the universality of making gold ornaments after a fixed weight. The passages given above show that a similar practice existed among the ancient Irish.
Let us turn to the numerous gold rings, commonly called Ring Money, of which there are some 50 in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy of various weights and sizes. I give these weights. Let us examine them, and see if we can find any indications gained inductively of a weight standard.
As by inspection we see that the smallest rings weigh 13 and 14 grs. Troy, and the next three 29, 31, 32 respectively, which look like the double of the smaller, I shall group the rings according as they approximate to the multiples of 15.
| Multiples of 15 | Actual Ring Weights (Royal Irish Acad.) | Multiples of 15 | Actual | Rings | Weights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | 13, 14 | 180 | 179 | 345 | |
| 30 | 29, 31, 32, 36 | 195 | 199, 203 | 360 | |
| 45 | 40, 46 | 210 | 206, 209 | 375 | 372 |
| 60 | 54, 56, 58, 59, 61, 65, 65 | 225 | 220 | 370 | |
| 75 | 69, 73 | 240 | 247 | ||
| 90 | 84, 84, 88, 96 | 255 | 259 | ||
| 105 | 98, 104, 111 | 270 | |||
| 120 | 121, 124 | 285 | 283, 283 | ||
| 135 | 300 | ||||
| 150 | 144, 144, 147, 147, 150, 151 | 315 | 322 | ||
| 165 | 171,172 | 330 | 332 |
A glance at the foregoing table shows that the most numerous group of rings occurs at the fourfold (60), no less than seven specimens ranging themselves at that point, next we find six specimens at the tenfold (150), whilst next in order comes the sixfold with four examples. There are three cases of the double (30). On the other hand it is worth noticing the absence of the ninefold, whilst there are three instances of the sevenfold, and the absence of the eighteenfold (2 × 9) likewise, whilst we have the elevenfold, twelvefold, thirteenfold, fourteenfold. However from the absence of the twentyfold (2 × 10) we cannot lay great stress on this. The heaviest specimen (372) closely approximates to the twenty-five fold (375).
I add the weights of the ancient Irish gold rings preserved in the British Museum.
Irish small plain ring money. Some are without localities but may be assumed to be Irish. Marked thus *.
*103, 563, *389, *121, *29½, 218, 224, 323, 295 injured, 218, 122, 90, 28, 56, 215 copper plated with gold (injured), 299, 148, 98, 366, 89 piece cut from a larger bracelet?, 48½ hollow and open? plating of bronze ring? (banded), 422, 410 (ounces), 288 (injured).