Ferguson — On Rath Cares. 135 



of which. I am not aware of any other example. In either case, the 

 E, retrenched by the rejection of the superfluous limb, which probably 

 represents some crack or fissure of the surface, will stand : in the first 

 supposition, as completing the ar : in the second, as commencing the 

 proper name of the person commemorated, which in either case should 

 follow the preposition. 



Our choice of the preposition will, therefore, depend on our success 

 in making out the name. If it begin with E, the preposition is do : 

 if it begin with E (which appears to be the next letter), the preposi- 

 tion is ar. The H, the E, and the remaining characters of the group, 

 except that immediately following the E, are fairly obvious to any 

 practised eye. Assuming that we have the whole of the name here, 

 it presents itself with reasonable distinctness as re hat or e hat, the 

 hiatus showing the place of the excepted character. 



This character at first sight bears all the appearance of an N 

 inverted, a mode of presenting a letter by no means unexampled. This 

 might suggest the idea that Dubordieu had before him the remains of 

 a legend commencing with the formula oroit ar anmain ; but it seems 

 impossible to reconcile this hypothesis with the form of the terminal 

 characters, which appear plainly to be AT ; and if we go outside the mere 

 tablet of the legend, and inquire into the local conditions of the place 

 where it was found, another, and, I think, a preferable phonetic power 

 for this character will be suggested. 



The rath from which it was taken stands in the neighbourhood of 

 Clogh, the ancient name of which was Cloch-magheracat, which, 

 possibly, may be a conniption of (Magh-)rechat, the name found attached 

 to the adjoining chapelry. Eeeves finds a Capella de Eecat in the parish 

 of Loghan Island, which comprises Clogh, in the terrier of 1615, cited 

 by him {Down and Connor, 215). Hence would arise a surmise that 

 Eecat may be the name, if the questioned character could be reconciled 

 with C hard. Again the Capella de Eecat appears in the form Eath- 

 kehatt and Eath-ekehatt in the Inquisitions of Edward VI. and 

 Elizabeth {Hid. 29, 125), pointing to a similar reading, minus the 

 initial E. 



Now, it is clear that the seemingly inverted JN" of the text cannot 

 be made, to yield any form of C as known in Irish alphabetic writing. 

 But it will be observed, that the right limb of the character belongs 

 properly to the following H ; and that we have only been able to re- 

 gard the combination of lines presented as standing for ~N, in any 

 aspect, by doubling the function of this line, and ascribing it as well 

 to the N as to the H. Although such double functions belong to the 

 lines of all siglums, it is only when we are sure that it is a siglum 

 with which we are dealing, that we are justified in so regarding them. 

 Confining the effect of the down stroke to the H, we have left a 

 combination of two lines, a perpendicular and an upward oblique 

 sprinering from it towards the right, being, in fact — as pointed out by 

 the Secretary of the Academy, in aid of a less tenable conjecture of 



