32 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



within doors, and with the power of using artificial light, which is a 

 very servicable aid in Museum study. The main difficuly, however, 

 arises from the necessity of having to consult such objects in the open 

 air. Where a legend, as is often the case, exists on more than one angle of 

 an inscribed stone — as where it is carried round the head or down the 

 opposite angle — the light which will bring the markings into relief 

 in one aspect will leave them unilluminated in the other ; so that 

 when the characters are worn or shallow, repeated visits must be paid 

 at different hours of the day before the eye can be assured of having 

 noticed eveiy indentation. Even then, what with disintegrations of 

 the surface, discolorations, the presence of lichens, and the interruptions 

 of the weather, many miles of travel niayljave to be encountered, 

 many visits to be paid, and the true text still remain undeciphered. 



I may illustrate these sources of error by two of my own experiences. 

 In the spring of 1868, I copied the Callan Mountain inscription. For 

 reasons which would be here out of place, I did not (nor do I) believe 

 that legend to have been fabricated by the framers or for the purposes 

 supposed; and considering it worth some exertion to see and transcribe 

 it, I came from Lisdoonvama, a distance of twenty miles, for the 

 purpose. "When I reached the spot the sun was low, and the light so 

 favourably cast on the whole length of the legend that I made no doubt 

 of being able to carry away a reliable transcript. I copied the legend 

 first from west to east, and then from east to west. So confident was I 

 that I had secured it exactly both ways, that I set out on my return 

 journey without waiting for a comparison. On comparing my tran- 

 scripts at home I found that the number of digits in one was 81 and 

 in the other 76, while in O'Elanagan's text, it is 79. Having no 

 certainty whether each or any was right, but conclusive evidence that 

 either one or other of my own was wrong, I made the journey again to 

 Mount Callan (but on this occasion from Ennis, a distance of ten 

 miles), in April of the present year, with I hope better success, 

 although I am still without such a cast as alone could give me 

 assurance of being perfectly safe from error. 



It is to the difficulty I have indicated, of keeping count of a long 

 sequence of groups shifting in the double predicament of position and 

 of component parts, that my miscarriage on the first occasion is to be 

 ascribed ; for the light was all that could be desired, and the level 

 rays brought every digit into distinct intaglio. The other instance I 

 shall adduce is referrible to the difficulty of extinguishing such marks 

 on a rugged surface only partially illuminated. The Rev. John 

 Shearman was good enough, in January, 1865, to confide to me 

 the remarkable discovery he had made of the bilingual inscription 

 at Killeen Cormaic. 4 In company with him, and on several occa- 



4 The Latin portion of this legend I take to bo 



IV VEEE DRUIDES ; 



Quatuor vere JDruides. If so, the associated Ogham may be expected to contain the 

 elements of four names in genitives in o, to each of which the safei snhhattos may be 



