214 
The scribe has used the character called eamhancoll to stand 
for the letters pc in apeoganc. According to the Uraicept it 
is properly used to denote x, which is equivalent to cs: but 
Irish scribes sometimes put se for the Latin 2, e. g. ascella for 
axilla; Mascimin for Maximin. The present mode of writing 
is thus easily explained. 
“ VITI. Page 204, marg. sup.—Latheirt.—The same 
word occurs in the ordinary character at p. 189. I cannot pro- 
nounce any positive opinion as to its signification. Professor 
Zeuss understands it to mean at the third hour, and refers to a 
gloss cepcia hona, at the bottom of p.212. But this explanation 
leaves the aspiration of the t unaccounted for. In Cormac’s 
Glossary we find a word lachoine, so little differmg in ortho- 
graphy that it may be equivalent to the one before us. 
“ Laichoipc .1. Lath ops .1. laith po n-onc .1. ol conmae. 
“ Uaichoipe, i.e. from laich, champion, and opc, it over- 
comes, i. e. drinking ale. 
‘“‘ It seems unlikely that this is the true interpretation of 
the Ogham word, though it might possibly be a gloss on some 
such word as ebrietas or crapula. 
*¢ At the commencement of each of these Ogham notes the 
following mark occurs: —>. It is used in the Books of 
Leinster, Lecan, and Ballymote; and generally in Irish MSS., 
where specimens of Ogham writing are introduced. On a 
large silver brooch in the Museum of the Royal Dublin So- 
ciety, it is used both to mark the beginning of each line of 
Ogham writing, and to separate names from one another. In 
the Ogham, No. VILI., a point is used for this purpose between 
the words cosgapc and inpo. There is also a point at the end 
of No. I. In Ogham inscriptions occurrmg on monuments I 
have met with indubitable instances of stops employed to se- 
parate words. But the difficulty of distinguishing between 
natural and artificial marks ought to make us careful not to 
pronounce too positively in cases of this kind. 
“‘ It is to be observed that the diphthongs occurring in these 
