72 THE BATTLE OF VENTRY, 



In the declension the neuter gender has been given up entirely ; the nom. and acc. 

 sing. fem. as well as the nom. and acc. plur. are indiscriminately used for one another ; 

 in the adjective one form, originally that of the nom. plur., is employed for all plural 

 cases exccpt the genitive. The neuter article, or rather the prepositions / n- and go 

 with the neuter article, are by analogy employed with masculine and feminine nouns : 

 'jfl domun 65. 453 like 'j/7 tig, 'sa maidiny 'sa chathirghail 668, 'sa comhrac 891, ^oj aird 

 976. A curious repetition of the feminine article after such forms is found va gusa an 

 maigh 637. A wrong use of the transported n- is found after the dative plural, 

 isna tighib n-ola 272. Cf. my edition of the Alexander-saga, p. 30. In ri mara 

 n-Icht 332. 362, it has entered from the nominative muir n-Icht. 



Of the orthographical peculiarities of our text, some of which seem to be dialectical 

 varieties, .the following are noteworthy. a occurs for in laca 60, gabha (cf. gaibnecht 

 LBr. 120 a), clach (also found in LL. 2c8a, i) cabhair (frequent in LBr.) 226, 241. 244. 

 632, /^f/j/ ^ 157. 444. j for ei in ticean 159 = 0.1. leicen. z/ for / in the preposition um 



453- 775. 982. 



We sometimes find vowel infection where it seems out of place : tairraing, einaibh 

 982, ccisair, eirradh, seaisceann sceila 228, uaibhracha (which may, however, be meant 

 for uaibhrcacha),fuilangthi 700. 



Infected d and g are often confused. Thus we find always written ragarc for radharc. 

 th stands for gh : sleatha, ch for th : co brach, aidhche 724 for aighthe, dh for th : leidhead, 

 bh ior gh: tiubhthuagh, tiublar, mh for dh\ osnam (cf. iss ingnam lemb Eg. 1782, fo, 57 a) 

 th or dh for ch: fithedh 599, taiseadh 604. dh has been dropped altogether in ligedh 680, 

 bh infagail, do tbogadar 627. 736. 892, gh in doni 353, of which early instances occur 

 already in the Book of Leinster. rr for rth in gnimarra, and vice versa allmurrthach for 

 allmurach 102. Instead of a/f (O.l.ille) we find/VA 971, as if it was connected with/^/^. 



In the Egerton version the spelling is naturally still more corrupt. It is noteworthy 

 that now and then attempts at a more phonetic spelling occur, e. g. iorra = earradh 2 1 o, 

 airne = airneamh 212, dheandch = deidhenach 2^^, chhiimh = chloidhimh ^85, cuis = cubhais 



397, &c. 



1. Cath Finntrdga ./. oided Finn, &c. As I have pointed out in the Rev. Celt. VI. 

 p. 190, there is another tale to which the title Aided Finn more properly belongs. 

 I insert it here from Laud 610, fo. 121 b. i 122 b. 2, adding the principal variants of 

 the copy in Egerton 1782. Both these INISS. are not earlier than the fifteenth century, 

 but the Aided Finn is already mentioned in the poem of Cinaed hua Artacain (died 

 in 975) which begins: Fianna bdtar i n-Emain, LL. 3ib, and Laud 610 fo, 74 a. 2 : 



la fein Luagne aided Finn 

 oc Ath Brea for Boind .... 



Ardrig uasal ormidnech ro gab uas Erinn .i. Cormac mac Airt mic Cuind Cetchathaig. 

 Bui-sium iarum ..v/. bliadna i rige n-Erenn cenmota na da bliadain ro gabsat Ulaid .i. 



* tocht is of frequent occurrence in older MSS., e.g. LL. 58 a. LBr. 108 b : ar omtin tocht i 

 n-ddil diabuil. LBr. 1 23 a ; is mithig duib tocht asin dithreb. 



