Ferguson — On the Transcription of Ogham Legends. 53 



speak less confidently ; but about tbe latter there can be no doubt. 

 A result so remarkable, considering that the stone was found very 

 near Caher Conree, ought, perhaps, to have stimulated me to com- 

 municate it to the Academy, even though it had only been in 

 a note of a few lines. But I desired to examine the stone myself 

 before I ventured to publish any description of it. The peculiar 

 labours and anxieties of these last two years have unfortunately 

 left me unable to accomplish this design. Your discovery of the 

 Latin legend on the stone is a most important one. To me, cer- 

 tainly, it is more satisfactory than it can be to those who still cherish 

 the old-fashioned theory as to the primeval antiquity of the Ogham, 

 and think to read in our inscriptions something a great deal more 

 interesting than a few proper names. 



"I have met with other Ogham inscriptions which must be read 

 backwards. For instance, the Ogham in the Colophon at the end of 

 the Stowe MS. Gospel of St. John [see "Proceedings of the E. I. A.," 

 vol. vi., p. 398.] 



TnTnTrmrmi 



I have not the slightest doubt that the Ogham word should be 

 read t)inop, not Somt) ; and I hazard the conjecture that Destos is the 

 ' Ogham name'' of Dimma, the Scribe of the MS. Gospels, known as 

 the "Book of Dimma," in the library of T. C. D. In coming to this 

 conclusion, I am mainly guided by the similarity of the hand- 

 \» siting. 



" There is another backward- written Ogham inscription on one oftho 

 monumental stones figured by Petrie at Clonmacnoise. I annex a 

 woodcut of it : — Here the word bochc is written backwards. But the 



instance which 

 will have most 

 interest for you 

 is that which 

 I draw from 

 another monu- 

 ment by which 

 you have been 

 perplexed, the 

 I Tyduff stone 

 on the side 

 of Brandon 

 Mountain. Tou 

 have correctly 

 read the in- 

 scription up one side as cupimicippop. But you did not perceive that 

 the characters on the other edge if read downwards, and from right to 

 left, give us macu como^ann ; Comogan being the Oghamic form of 



B. I. A. PROC. VOL. I., SEK. II., POL. LIT. AND ANTIQ. I 



