Macalister— ?%<? "Druuides" Inscription at Killeen Cormac. 235 



Having got his model from the " druid," cut in Ogham on two rods, our 

 workman copied the first of them exactly as we see it to-day, occupying parts 

 of two angles and the top of the stone. He should then have gone round to 

 the hack of the stone, and copied the other rod on the remaining angles ; but 

 for one of many reasons that might be suggested, he took it into his head to 

 write the rest of the inscription in Eoinan letters on the face ui the stone. 

 Possibly he thought that he would thereby save the reader the trouble of 

 . walking round the stone to decipher the whole inscription ; possibly the other 

 angles did not appear suitable for receiving the scores ; possibly he wanted to 

 show off his attainments in the Roman alphabet; possibly he was weary of 

 the monotonous task of cutting scores and keeping count of their number and 

 position. Any of these reasons are sufficient and satisfactory. Whatever 

 may have been the determining cause, the fact remains that, in the theory 

 I am endeavouring to develop, the stone-cutter transliterated the latter 

 half of the inscription, but in doing so unfortunately held his rod upside- 

 down. 



It is perhaps less easy to understand how the blunder was allowed to pass 

 when submitted to inspection. Perhaps the mysterious result appealed to 

 the druidic love of mystery ! This is not so far-fetched an idea as might 

 appear at first sight. For I think we may fairly hold that there was some- 

 thing more than mere commemoration intended by the setting up of an 

 inscription. It had a magical meaning of some kind as well. This is shown, 

 among other things, by the pathetic attempts that we see to have been 

 sometimes made to imitate Ogham letters by persons unfamiliar with the 

 construction of the alphabet. At Hawkinstown, in Heath, for instance, on a 

 stone to which Professor MaciSTeill called my attention, one edge is covered 

 with scores which it is impossible to group into intelligible signs. Such 

 "pseudo-Oghams" are fairly common over the whole country. And who 

 knows but that this mistake may not have been the salvation of our stone, 

 when all other writings in the heathenish Roman letters were destroyed ? 

 the would-be iconoclasts, not yet emancipated from their ancient superstitions, 

 might have been restrained by fear from effacing the unknown " word of 

 power " which they supposed it to bear, and which had been produced by this 

 simple accident. 



IV. 



We have now indicated the lines on which answers to two of the questions 

 set before us are to be sought. The inscription is in the Roman letters 

 because the Roman letters were current, so far as any letters may be said 

 to have been current, m the country at the time of its being carved; and 



K.T.A. PROO., VOL. XXXII., SECT. c. [36] 



