Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 



289 



rally bear that signification, but rather a restoration or covering of the building, 

 as the word is employed in that sense to denote the covering or casing of a 

 book ; and, in fairness, I should confess that, in the translation of the Annals of 

 Inisfallen, preserved in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy, the word 

 cumoctc is rendered doubtfully " built, or restored ;" and I should also add, that 

 the verb curhoai^im is explained in O'Brien's Dictionary as signifying " to 

 keep or preserve, to maintain or support, also to build, rather to roof and cover 

 a building." But this latter part of the explanation is an inference of Dr. 

 O'Brien's, and it is not warranted by any authority found in Irish manuscripts. 

 In these documents the word curimac is beyond question employed to denote 

 the erection as well as the founding of a building, and sometimes the building 

 itself; as in the following example in Cormac's Glossary, at the word Gicoe : 



"Oicoe, .1. ecooe 5r ece aeoipicium Cacme, .1. cumoac." 



" Aicde, i. e. ecdoe [recte mitftf] Grace, cedificium Latine, i. e. cumoach." 



And, in like manner, the verb curhoaijim is used to translate the Latin condo, 

 with which it is very probably cognate, as in the following example from the 

 Book of Ballymote, in which condita est is translated po cumoaijeab : 



" Roma condita est, .1. po curhoaijeao in TCoirii." Fol. 3, b, a. 



In its general plan, as above shown, Cormac's chapel exhibits many points 

 of resemblance with the earlier stone-roofed churches of the Irish, as in its 

 simple division into nave and chancel, and in the crofts or apartments placed 

 over them ; but, in most other respects, it is totally unlike them, and indeed, 

 taken as a whole, it may be considered as unique in Ireland. For example, 



VOL. xx. 2 P 



