296 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



dictionaries. The other was, that macui "was not literally filii, but 

 filiorum, equivalent in fact to the old form maecu, which we meet in 

 our most ancient MSS. with the meaning filiorum. It is a tribal 

 designation, denoting the gens to which a man belonged. I have 

 finally adopted the latter explanation, and have only refrained from 

 mentioning it before now, because the investigations into which I was 

 led when discussing its probability, carried me far beyond the object 

 which I first undertook to examine. I have come to the conclusion 

 that the old patronymic, or rather tribal designation maccu, was after- 

 wards changed into maccui or macui ; and that this has been erro- 

 neously supposed to mean, films nepotis. If I am right, the mistake has 

 given rise to much confusion, and even to the falsification of genealo- 

 gies which were altered to make the macui equivalent to ' great - 

 grandson-of.' 



" The Ballyboden monument gives us the legend : — 



COEBI POI HACTT LABBADI. 



I am not quite sure about the penultimate letter a. But this is 

 a matter of no importance, and I translate the inscription thus : 



Corli qui f nit filiorum Lalraclii. 



"This is not as bad Latin as some people might suppose, for Horace 

 wrote — Fies nobilium tu quoque fontium ; ' Thou shaft become (one) of 

 the celebrated fountains.' 



"Colgan (Trias Th.), in his notes on the third life of S. Bridget, 

 explains Provincia Lalrathi as meaning the country of the Hy Kinnse- 

 lagh ; observing that Labradius, son of Bresal Belach King of Leinster, 

 was the head of the family of Kenselagh, as being the father of Enna 

 Kenselagh; and Professor 0' Curry, in the Appendix to his Lectures 

 on the MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History (p. 491), has printed a 

 poem ascribed to Dubhthach ua Lugair, the last stanza of which sup- 

 ports the statement. 



"Bringing the foregoing result to bear upon the Monataggart in- 

 scription, I proceed to consider the next group of characters ; and in 

 dealing with them I am bound to speak with abated confidence, though 

 I feel that my interpretation of them may be defended with a good 

 show of reason. I take xeta to be the Oghamic form of A'iath, which 

 means a champion, and forms an element in many ancient Irish names. 

 Thus in Adamnan's Life of Columbkille (Reeves' edit., p. 49), we meet 

 with a mention of a quidam Baitanus gente nepos Niath Taloirc. Again, 

 in the Book of Armagh, reference is made to a Cairpri Niathcar, who 

 is supposed to have lived in the fourth century. I believe that this is 

 the name represented by the Oghamic form Netacari on the Castle- 

 timon monument. It will be urged that neta is not niath. I admit 

 it. But I hold that the difference is such as is consistent with what 

 mav be regarded as a law of the Oghamic transformation of names and 

 words. 



