170 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



pan, l i a, D o.l i c fl, c o 11 a p, c ol 5 a c, c o p obaoa [c] .... 



^_ WIHHlii i iili| l l ll l lii\i l llll l l l limttTt|^- 



(a) Two dots not of the Ogham. (6) An indentation in the stone, not of the Ogham, 



(c) I would expect |ji| (= c) here ; if the stone was perfect it would then read ' cosobadac' " 



11 In the summer of 1859 I was asked by Mr. W. S. O'Brien for a 

 copy of the inscription, and, before giving it to him, I went to examine 

 the stone again, in order to secure the correctness of my copy; but 

 when I reached the place I found that the monument had disappeared, 

 and nothing remained of the Leabha (bed), and Leacht (pile), and the 

 Leac (stone-flag) of Conan, bat a shapeless hole of mud and clay, and 

 a few loose stones scattered around the hole on the surface. In vain I 

 looked for the stone, and could not find it. On my return I came into 

 the village of Inagh ; and, having told the story of my disappointment 

 there, a man met- me and said he knew where the stone was, and 

 that he could tell me all about it, and how it was removed from where 

 I first saw it. As it was then too late to go back to the mountain, 

 I said I would like to hear his story of the removal of the stone. 

 ' Sir,' said he, ' a poor widow in the village of Callan dreamt several 

 times that she would find her own load of gold and other treasures 

 in the bed of Conan, and she went at night to seek the spoils herself 

 and her two sons; and, finding the stone too heavy to be turned off, 

 they plied the crow-bar to an opening in its edge, and split it into 

 two flags, and then cast if off in two parts, and in opening the bed 

 of Conan, where they expected to find the gold, they dug up the whole 

 grave, and left it in a shapeless pit, just as you found it. INow I will 

 tell you about the stone,' said he. ' The under side of it was heavy, 

 and it lodged a good bit down the hill, with its face under, and it is 

 now bedded into the earth and covered with heath, so that you could 

 not well notice it unless you were told about it. The upper, or inscrip- 

 tion side was not so heavy. It went much farther down the hill, and 

 there it fell over a hollow ground, so that it formed a hollow chamber 

 and place of refuge for rabbits and other small animals ; and thus it 

 remained for some years till a hunting party came to course the moun- 

 tain, when a hare, exhausted from the chase, took shelter under the 

 flag, and they, the huntsmen, turned off the stone, and cast it down 

 with such force, that it rolled to the foot of the mountain, and lodged 

 in the marsh, where it still remains almost covered with clay.' 



" Having heard this story I resolved to go again and see the stone 

 if possible. I arranged with this man to meet me at Inagh on a 

 subsequent Sunday to lead us to the place. I organized a band of 

 twenty-one stout young men, and on the appointed day proceeded to 

 the site of the demolished bed of Conan, accompanied by a good number 

 of the inhabitants of the surrounding districts. When we reached 

 the place and found the stones as described, we set to work without 



