Graves — On the '' Ligmcm Contensionis.'^ 21 



The passage as I read it {BoqTc of Armagh, fol. 13, a.a.) stands as 

 follows, the italics representing the Irish characters : — 



" Et exiit ad Dmmmut Cerrigi,^ et inuenit .ii. uiros conflin- 

 guentes, filios unius uiri, ad inuicem, post mortem patris eorum, qui 

 faber aereus erat de genere Cerrigi . . . umen^ uoluerunt diuidere 

 hereditatem, et possitum erat lignum contensionis quod uocatur caami? 

 apud gentiles/ et arripuerunt gladios ancipites extensis' manibus 

 (pe)rcutere frater fratrem, pedibus erectis,^ quod defunctum^ est 

 in terra more campi." 



The Eev. E. Hogan, reading it almost exactly as I do, accepts the 

 text as correct, and appears to have rightly understood the purport of 

 the paragraph. But he leaves the Lignum Contensionis unexplained. 

 His note upon the passage is as follows : — 



" Caam. cfr. Cam = contentio, duellum ; caman = lignum seu 

 baculus quo Hiberni utuntur in pilari ludo." 



Mr. Hogan has ample authority for saying that caam = contentio, 

 duellum. But I think camd?i is derived not from cam, duellum, but 

 from cam, curvus. It was the curved stick used in hurling. See 

 " Dictionary of the Highland Society," under the words camag and 

 caman; also O'Beilly's and other Irish dictionaries; and Le Gonidec's 

 Breton Dictionary, Kammel, Baton courbe par le bout, for playing 

 La Crosse. 



Dr. Stokes {Trip. Life, vol. i., p. clxxvii., and vol. ii., p. 320), 

 distrusting the knowledge of the scribe, treats the text as corrupt, 

 and offers an emendation of it. For lignum he reads licium, by which, 

 no doubt, he understands a place marked out by liciae — lists. 



^ This was Ciarraighe Artigh, now Tibghine and Kilnamanagh ; and Drummod 

 is tlie name of a townland in the parish of Tibobine, barony of Frenchpark, Co. 

 Eoscommon. See Booh of Armagh, fol. 9, a.a., and 0' Donovan's Annals of the 

 Tour Masters, ad ann. 1297, p. 469. 



^ Bishop Reeves and I agreed in reading . . . timen, but failed to make 

 out the beginning of the word. Our conclusion was different from that at which 

 Mr. Hogan has arrived. He reads Airnen or Sannen. 



' Cam, i.e. comland, a conflict. {Cormac's Glossary.) 



* Gentiles. Pagan Irish, as frequently in Tirechan; e.g. Book of Armagh, 

 fol. 14, a.b. 



* The epithets extensis and erectis have been transposed. See Tirechan, Booh 

 •of Armagh, fol. 15, b.a. 



^ The latinity is questionable. I would translate thus : — All which was 

 ■done in due form on the ground after the usage of the duel. Campus was used to 

 denote the duel as well as the place of combat. See Ducange, in voe. Hence 

 German Kampf. 



