Brash — Ogham-inscribed Stone from Mount Music. 191 



invariably selected the hardest stones. This I can testify after per- 

 sonal examination of 140 of those monuments. It is quite evident 

 that this knowledge must have been the result of extended experience. 

 The inscription obviously reads : — 



AKTNACCANjSTI MAQOT AILLTTATTAN = 



(Stone) of Annaccann the son of Ailluattan. 



Anhacanh". The name of the person here commemorated we can 

 identify under the form of Aenag an, in the "Annals of the Pour 

 Masters," at a. d. 878, 893, 898, and also in the form of Eignechan, 

 an ancestor of the O'Donnells. Eignechan, the son of Dalaeh, their 

 progenitor, died in the year 902, or, according to the "Annals of 

 the Four Masters," in 901. Welsh bardism gives us a mythic per- 

 sonage, Einagan Gator. An examination of the proper names found 

 on Ogham-inscribed monuments, will throw considerable light on the 

 archaic forms of many names to be found in our historic annals. The 

 modern forms are Hannagan and Sanigan, a name frequently to be 

 met with in the south of Ireland. 



Ailluattan, the other name in the inscription, appears to equate 

 with one remarkable in the Tuath de Danaan pedigrees, Ealladan, or 

 Eiathan ; he is described in the " Book of Lecan," fol. 280, as the son 

 of Dealbaoth, the son of Neid, the son of Indai, the son of Allai, the 

 son of Thait, the son of Tabairn ; and he is stated to have been the 

 father of the five great chiefs or demigods of that mysterious people, 

 namely, " Ogma, the sun- worshipper; Alloth, the charming; Breasal, 

 of the victorious wreath ; Delbaoth, the undaunted ; and Dagda the 

 great." Dr. 0' Curry gives us "Ogma of the sun-like face:" "Lec- 

 tures," p. 289. 



Names with the prefixes Al and Ail are very usual in our indices ; 

 but I have not met with any example of the exact form found in this 

 legend. 



This monument is remarkable as having a well-defined Maltese 

 cross deeply cut on the original base, where a clear space had been 

 left, below where the inscription commenced ; this will be evident 

 from an examination of the accompanying sketch. When discovered, 

 the cross end was uppermost, and the original head of the stone, with 

 a portion of its inscription, was buried in the earth. It is quite evi- 

 dent from this circumstance that the cutting of the cross was subse- 

 quent to the cutting of the inscription, and that those who appropriated 

 this memorial to a Christian purpose were either unacquainted with 

 the nature of the Ogham or held that class of monument in no manner 

 of reverence, until sanctified by the sacred symbol. The exact same 

 mode of appropriation has been applied to most of our genuinely cross- 

 marked Ogham memorials, as Aglish, Ballinahunt, and Gowran, in 

 Ireland; and Trallong and Tycoed in Wales ; on all of which the cross 

 has been cut on the original bases of the stones. 

 {See next paper.") 



