252 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



recorded the name in the nearest equivalent Greek spelling OvXovroi ; more 

 likely, perhaps, that he made it OuXounoi, for a plural nominative in -i, in 

 Celtic as in Latin, might leave a Greek writer in doubt as to whether the 

 stem had -io or only -o. It can hardly be doubted that the further scribal 

 development of the name into OvoXovvtioi represents attraction towards the 

 Latin uoluntas, uoluntarius. 



The parallel of the second instance is much closer. In the Book of 

 Ballymote, 196, are preserved some fragments of a tract in Latin on Irish 

 genealogical lore. They contain (col. 2, 1. 24) the phrase in tempore 

 Uolotorum, meaning " in the time of the Ulaidh," i.e. in the time of the 

 heroes or of the kingdom of Emain. Here clearly the unfamiliar archaic 

 Irish Uluti has been changed by scribes into the familiar Latin uoluti. 



To sum up the argument : St. Patrick could not have written Focluti ; 

 Focluti is a later redaction of the original word ; among the extant variants, 

 Fochcti cannot have arisen from idrgtolti or uehiti, but has obviously arisen 

 from uoluti, probably through *uoduti ; as in the BB instance, uolidi is a 

 Latin substitute for the Irish *uluti ; all the variants attest the ending -ti. 

 In his use of the Irish name, St. Patrick, wiore Brittanino, like the Cymric 

 language of all periods, dispensed with case-inflexion. Silua Uluti would 

 represent such a name as *Caill Uloth or *Fid Uloth in seventh-century Irish. 

 In the earliest Irish of the Ogham inscriptions, the genitive plural Uloth 

 would appear as Uluta—c^. teia maqa mailagni = ^rmm filiorum M. The 

 modern name Colli Ultach cannot be traced to any great antiquity, but is 

 probably older than De Courcy's occupation, which brought the rule and 

 record of the Ulaidli to an end. 



This explanation of silva Focluti gets rid of all the difficulties that have 

 been found in explaining St. Patrick's dream with reference to a wood or 

 forest separated almost by the breadth of Ireland from the only part of 

 Ireland in which, before this dream, tradition knew liim to have been. The 

 saint, in his narrative, has the vision vividly before his mind ; and when he 

 speaks of tlie mare occideiitale, he means, if I mistake not, the sea to the west 

 of Britain, not the sea to the west of Ireland. 



The name of his master and owner in his captivity, according to an 

 unquestioned tradition, was Miliucc nioccu Booin (later maccu Buain). This 

 name signifies that Miliucc belonged to the sept known later as Dal Buain. 

 The lands of this sept were situate immediately to the east of Lough Neagh. 

 Sliabh Mis, " Slemish " (not " Slemmish " to rhyme with " blemish," but with 

 the long e), the traditional scene of the captivity, Dal Buain, and Killultagh, 

 all come within a range of twenty miles ; and the adhuc of the voices requires 

 no strained explanation. When the Confessio adds, Deo gratias, quia post 



