34 NOTES ON LATIN INSCRIPTIONS 



This suspicion is strengthened by the fact that we can trace this de- 

 si"-nation of the metal in lood in Dutch, loth in German, lod in Danish, 

 lod in Icelandic, lod in Swedish, lot in Russian, *luaidh in Gaelic, 

 and Iced or lead in Anglo-Saxon, whence our term is derived. It also 

 derives some support from the remarkable omission in the inscriptions 

 of the ordinary Latin designation of the metal — plumbum. 



But a question arises as to Lutudarum — in what case is it ? Is it 

 the nominative singular of the second declension ? the genitive plural 

 of the first declension ? or the genitive plural of the third declension ? 

 Dr. Gifford and Sir Henry Ellis, when they read LVT • in n. (3) as 

 Lut[udari] seem to have adopted the first opinion. Similarly Sir 

 Henry Ellis, p. 290, reads LVTVD- Lutudar[ense], i. e., I presume, 

 deriving this adjective from Lutudarum as the nominative. Prof. 

 Phillips, in the passage which I have cited, p. 32, has adopted the 

 second opinion, but seems to have mistaken Lutudce for the name of 

 a people or tribe. Mr. Yates is inconsistent on this point, for in the 

 same page, p. 11, he says, "at Lutudarum" and "to Lutudar," 

 leaving it uncertain whether he adopted the first or third opinion. 

 Similarly Mr. Bateman, p. 31, speaks in one sentence of ' the metallic 

 district of Lutudarum,' and in another, the next but one, uses the 

 terms — ' the mines of the British Lutudse or Lutudarum.' Of these 

 I prefer Lutudce, the nominative plural of the first declension, and 

 hence form Lutudensis as its adjective. 



There is also another question, which we have not yet considered, 

 as to metallum, of which MET • and METAL • are abbreviations. 

 Does it signify metal or mine ? It is scarcely necessary to remark 

 that there are examples of both significations in ancient authors. I 

 am inclined to adopt the latter, and as to construction prefer the no- 

 minative. 



Let us now take up the forms EX'ARG* and EX-ARGENT. 

 There can, I think, be no doubt, that the prima facie interpretation 

 of ex argento inscribed on an object would be that that object was 

 made of silver, as we have ex arg. in Orelli, n. 1691 ; now this is cer- 

 tainly inapplicable to these pigs, for they are, I presume, unques- 

 tionably made of lead. Adopting the same signification of ex, we 

 may suggest another expansion— e^ a?-^en^[ario plumbo] ; but the 



• Can the combination of this and the Gaelic uihe, the end of a journey, be tiie origin of 

 Lutuda —Luaidhudlie, the lead station P 



