48 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



This siglum, and its meaning, induce another example of a like 

 nature with the last. Several pieces of fictile ware from the same 

 locality present the maker's marks, accompanied by the contraction OF. 

 (possibly officina or opus fecit), as OF. Savetri; Patirati OF. (Castlecary) ; 

 OF. Valo. ; OF. Iucun ; (Cramond)'. 13 This OF. appears to have 

 its reflexion on some Ogham inscriptions, which are obviously, in 

 part, at least, conceived on Roman models ; as at Bridell, where the 

 concluding groups appear to read plainly, oudoco effeci ; 13 at Drum- 

 loghan where, on the roof stone No. 7, the characters, as I conceive, 



express the legend cunalegea maqi c or celuufiq feci, as recordingthe 



erection of a monument for Kelufic ; and (not to go outside my own 

 opportunities of verification by inspection) at Ardmore, where the 

 " Lugudeccas" legend ends with what seems an independent OF. 14 

 "Now, amongst Mr. Du Noyer's drawings is one of the Ogham inscribed 

 pillar on Brandon mountain, which possessed the double attraction of 

 presenting the word Qrimiter coupled with the syllable AF., wanting 

 only a single notch to form another example of the same combination. 

 This word Qrimiter, or Cruimther, had a peculiar interest from the 



!2 Wilson, Prehist. Ann. Scot., p. 102. 



13 The transliteration of the entire legend appears to run thus, nettasagrohocoudoco- 

 effeci, or nettasagromoc, &c. Here, whether nett.a be deemed part of the ensuing legend 

 or separable from it, it is noticeable as reflected in the netacarinetacagi of theCastle- 

 timon legend (correcting Du Noyer in the c's), and in the nettalaminaqca,&c, of one of 

 the Ballintaggart group (No. xvi). If separable, compare with nit or nita in mort 

 tricet oc c petuar nitanam atterunc, of the Towyn inscription, equivalent possibly to 

 mortuus trigesimo (?) centesimo quarto (anno Christi) nita anamat mater hunc, &c, 

 and with nethi on the " Sieur Eloy,'' or Brunswick Casket (Kilk.Arch. Soc. v., 4 N. S., 

 267, and Stephens's Runic Monuments, 378) ; giving rise to the conjecture that netta 

 = opus, or, possibly, signum. If so, the verbation of the Bridell stone would seem- 

 ingly run, Netta sagro hoc (or sagrom oc) oudoco effeci. There was an Oudoe, Bishop 

 of Llandaff in the 7th century. If moc, the reading might be mod doco, 8;e., and 

 Docus, a more eminent personage, be the one intended. 



11 Assuming the pedigree preserved in this legend to be that of Declan's great 

 grandfather Lugdech, it would show the existence of Christian orders in the South of 

 Ireland four generations before Declan's period, whatever that may have been. 

 There can be little, if any, doubt of the verbation of the first two lines, Lugudeccas 

 maqi Dolati bigoesgobi. Dolatus may be a play on the Anac and Miach of the pedigree 

 which again appear corroborated, though not with entire certainty, owing to a 

 fracture of the stone, in the anaci legend from the adjoining Cathedral (Mus. Lap. 

 R. I. A., No. 4) ; and bigoesgobi can hardly be taken for anything but chore-bishop, 

 in its Latinized form vico-episcopus. "Whether Gaqomageca, in the third line, be a 

 name of humiliation of Declan himself (daeglan per antithesin, in viliori sensu), 

 is worthy of inquiry. See le Blant sur nommes bizarres adopte's par les premiers 

 Chretiens (Revue Arch., N. S., vol. x, p. 5) ; see also Gaqosi Ceccudoros ? of one 

 of the Ballintaggart group (No. xxii), a retroverse reading, but supported by 

 the direct examples, Gosocti Smosacma (Mus., Lap. R. I. A., No. 10) ; Saffiqegi 

 Ttocattac (Mus. Kilk. Arch. Soc.) ; Carrttacegaqi Mucagma [but this is possibly 

 mmaqi] (Mus. Cork Instit.) ; Qrittalegi qritumah ? (R. I. A., No. 5) ; Curciti Find- 

 dilorac ? (No. xxv), which all appear formulated to one method of expression. In 

 this connexion consider M'Curtin's statement as to the practice of stigmatising the 

 deceased under cryptic Ogham forms of vilification. 



