Ferguson — Monataggart Ogham Inscription, No. 1. 209 



Gltjnlegget is formed, as are several other Irish proper names, on 

 Glun, " a knee," associated with some adjectival or participial ele- 

 ment : such, for example, as Glunfin, Glunsalach, Gluniaran, Glun- 

 merach, Gluntradna. The legget associated with it, in this case, 

 appears to he a participial form of leigim, " I cast," " I let go," which 

 is the word in common nse to express the act of kneeling ; as leigeadh 

 se fein ar a gluinib, " he casts himself on his knees." In this sense it 

 would he represented by the Latin genustratus, or perhaps more accu- 

 rately genusternens. The word itself shows no sign of inflexion, and, 

 unless it be indeclinable, which I would conceive to be unlikely, 

 strengthens the idea that this is the subject name, and Fiachra the 

 patronymic. If otherwise, Gltjnlegget would be the adnomen of Fi- 

 achra, and hoqoi his description ; or — which appears to exhaust the 

 category of possible meanings — Gltjnlegget would be the adnomen of 

 Fiachea, and jaioqoi the object of his genuflexions. 



In whatever grammatical dependence the constituents of the le- 

 gend are to be taken, one consideration of much moment, in reference to 

 its probable age, will have occurred to the minds of any Irish scholar 

 who may hear me. If feqreq carries us back to the days of Adamnan, 

 what shall we say to the g's of Gltjnlegget, as contrasted with the c of 

 leicim — the form in which the verb shows itself in the " Gray's" Book, 

 and in the Book of Leinster ? It is, I apprehend (if I except the case of 

 Deglann = Declan, to which I lately referred), the first occasion of an Og- 

 ham text furnishing a means of comparison between lapidary and manu- 

 script forms which might offer a feasible ground for predicating the age of 

 the former. But it will be noticed that the g is duplicated in the Ogham, 

 and that supposing this and the Latin lego to be parent and off-shoot, 

 or even that they are branches of the same stem, it may be asked, 

 does not g carry us farther back towards the root than the c of the 

 mediaeval manuscripts ? On these points I offer no opinion of my own, 

 but venture to express my belief that, when the establishment of philo- 

 logical laws shall have been completely effected, the material this text 

 contributes may possibly invite to their profitable application. 



Such is this Monataggart legend, and such the considerations 

 to which it gives rise in the mind even of an uncritical reader. 

 That it has been read, I apprehend no one who sees it with the Ogham 

 alphabet beside it will for a moment doubt ; and I will add the ex- 

 pression of my hope that the fact of its having been read will serve as 

 an encouragement to Ogham decipherers not to despair when the more 

 obvious methods of transliteration are found ineffectual; but rather 

 to accept the embarrassment as an assurance that the true meaning is 

 to be arrived at by a different application of the key. 



Dr. Ferguson read a letter from the Bight Bev. Dr. Graves, 

 Bishop of Limerick, which follows next, as Taper No. XXXIV. See 

 also No. XXXV., and papers read December, 1874. 



