We have seen that in the Brehon Laws the smallest silver unit was the _screapall_ or scripulum. And it has already been mentioned that the scripulum was also known as the _denarius Gallicus_, of which 24 went to the Roman ounce of 576 wheat-grains, as in the Brehon Laws, and that a score of ounces made the mina Italica of twice 5760 wheat-grains. It is curious to find in a passage quoted by Petrie[77] from the _Fodla Feibe_ in the Book of Ballymote,[78] a full and exact appreciation of the number of wheat-grains in the scripulum and the Roman ounce. The wheat-grains, according to this passage, are to be taken from wheat grown on typically rich soil which produces ‘the three roots,’ and 24 wheat-grains are the weight of the ‘screapall’ of silver, and 576 the weight of the ‘uinge’ or ounce. Further it is stated that the full weight which the _Tinde_ or weighing bar is to weigh is--not a pound: there is no mention of the pound--but _seven score ounces_.[79] Now this reckoning, not in pounds, but in _scores of ounces_, has already been alluded to as, consciously or unconsciously, a reckoning in so many of the _mina Italica_. Petrie quotes a passage from the ‘Annals of the Four Masters’ in which this payment in scores is illustrated.[80] A.D. 1029. Amlaff, son of Sitric, lord of the Danes, was captured by Mahon O’Riagain, lord of Bregia, who exacted 1,200 cows as his ransom, together with seven score British horses and three score ounces of gold and the sword of Carlus … and three score ounces of white silver as his fetter ounces, and four score cows for word and supplication, and four hostages to O’Riagain himself as a security for peace and the full value of the life of the third hostage. Apart, however, from the monetary system of the Brehon Laws, the fact remains that the real currency of early Irish custom seems to have been in _cumhals_ or _female slaves_. The coirp-dire and the honour-price of the Brehon tracts were reckoned in cumhals, and we shall find that there appears to be good evidence that both payment in female slaves and the equation of the female slave with three Roman ounces of silver go back to a very early period. V. THE IRISH COIRP-DIRE AND HONOUR-PRICE TRACED FURTHER BACK THAN THE BREHON LAWS. The evidence regarding the coirp-dire of the Brehon Laws and its payment in female slaves does not rest on those laws alone. [Sidenote: St. Patrick’s ‘pretium hominis’ of ‘seven ancillæ.’] St. Patrick, in his ‘Confessions,’[81] treats the _pretium hominis_ as a well-known unit of value. These are the words of St. Patrick:-- Vos autem experti estis quantum erogavi illis qui judicabant per omnes regiones quas ego frequentius visitabam; censeo enim non minimum quam pretium quindecim hominum distribui illis.