208 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Feqkeq will, I dare say, appear a strange disguise under which to 

 recognise the Fiachrach of our later manuscripts. But Adaninan has 

 used it in substantially the same form. In 1. ii., c. 17, of the Vita S. 

 Columbae (Reeves, p. 45) he relates an incident, ' 'de Colcio Aido Draigniehe 

 filio, a nepotibus Fecereg orto," and the learned editor identifies this 

 descendant of Fecureg with Colga, son of Aed, son of Aed, son of 

 Lugaidh, son of Dathi, son of Fiachra Foltsnathae, a quo htFfacheach, 

 adding that the pedigree illustrates the admirable agreement of the 

 biographer with the Irish genealogies. The name occurs again at 

 iii. 20, in the same connexion (p. 225) " alia itidem node, quidatn defra- 

 tribus, t'olgius nomine, films, &c, de nepotibus Fecheeg, cujus in primo 

 fecimus meniionem," &c. ; and, in Codex B (pref. xxiv.)the correspond- 

 ing text presents the name in the still closer approximation to the 

 feqeeq, of the Ogham, in the form fechrech (p. 225, n. 4), where the 

 aspirations only distinguish the one from the other. 



Indeed, it might be allowable to inquire whether the q's of the 

 text may not be, in fact, aspirated c's : but, though the number of 

 digits would suit that theory, their collocation is unfavourable to it ; 

 and the groups must, I apprehend, be taken as q's. In reference, 

 however, to the possibility of the seeming q being c aspirated, I may 

 observe that my experience as to the occurrence of an Oghamic h is 

 now more extended than when I last wrote on that subject (ante, p. 

 1 92). I have recently met a distinct example of h, in an Ogham text 

 discovered by Mr. Rhys, in Caermarthenshire, the detail of which I 

 hope soon to lay before the Academy. 



It will be remembered that the forms of Fiachra used by Adamnan 

 are in the genitive. We may reasonably infer that the uoqoi associ- 

 ated with the feqbeq, of the text is in the same case. But whether 

 moqoi here is the maqi of ordinary occurrence, and to be read " son 

 of," or whether it be a form of mucoi, a distinct word, the meaning of 

 which can only as yet, be guessed at, is a question which I do not 

 here pretend to solve. If the former, the purport of the legend would 

 be : [The stone oe] Fiachra, son of Gtlenxegget. If the latter, it 

 would, bear some such meaning as this : Fiachea's G-lenlegget [lees 

 heee,] Fiachra being distinguished by whatever designation is implied 

 by Mucoi. 



I have nothing material to add to what I have stated, both as to 

 this form of description and as to the possible meaning of Mucoi, in 

 my letter to Mr. Prim, published in the Journal of the Royal His- 

 torical and Archaeological Society of Ireland beyond this, that new 

 examples continue to present themselves of Mucoi being used in 

 contexts which appear to distinguish it from any form of Mac, "a 

 son;" that the idea of all those so designated having been swine- 

 herds becomes daily more difficult to be maintained ; and that the 

 probability of its indicating the status of the person, in some religious 

 or cenobitical connexion, is somewhat fortified by its association with 

 what seems to be a name in religion — Geexlegget — in the present 

 instance. 



