MacNeill — JSotes on Irish Ogham Inscriptions. 341 



Such a fashion cannot be assumed to be purely capricious. The labour 

 involved in carving the Ogham symbol, let us say for N, which contains five 

 scores, twice, where once would have served the purpose, renders such an 

 assumption untenable. I'he fashion must have had a purpose in its origin. 

 The most likely purpose was to make a parade of learning in the form of 

 archaism. This motive is prominent in nearly every period of Irish MS. 

 literature. 



If, then, double consonants in Ogham writing exhibit the archaistic 

 motive, which is abundantly evidenced in other features, it must follow that^ 

 duplication had a practical purpose in a stage of Ogham writing anterior 

 to the stage of extant epigraphy. Hence it might be expected that dupli- 

 cation would be found peculiar to certain classes of consonants. I have 

 made careful statistics of the occurrences of duplication in Macalister's 

 collection, which covers the entire region of prevalence of Ogham inscrip- 

 tions in Ireland — a region included in the counties of Kerry, Cork, and 

 Waterford. I find that every consonant symbol in use, except X and >< , 

 is sometimes duplicated. I have already noted these as probably of late 

 introduction. 



But there is an enormous disproportion in the frequency of duplication 

 as between one consonant and another. Taking the absolute frequency of 

 each consonant written singly as 1000, the relative frequency of duplication 

 for each is as follows : — 



T 621, D 375, V 266, B 200, S and Ng 166, C 165, Q 129, L 123, 

 G115, ]Sr91, R76, M39. Average frequency 165, which is not calculated 

 on the figures just given, but on the absolute totals of single and double 

 symbols. 



In making the calculation, I did not include initial consonants. These 

 are very rarely doubled, and their duplication cannot be regarded as 

 customary. Hence to include the ratio of duplication in initial consonants 

 would have vitiated the comparison. For the same reason, I have excluded 

 final S of inflexional desinences. 



The immense difference in ratio, from 39 to 621, cannot possibly be 

 fortuitous. The original purpose of duplication must lie at the bottom of the 

 difterence. 



Ng may be excluded. It occurs in all only 7 times, once double. 



The question of mechanical difficulty in engraving may be considered. 

 The most difficult symbols to engrave are those of the M-series, which are 

 cut obliquely on both sides of the arris. Excluding Ng as too rare, and the 

 fourth symbol, which does not occur at all, the remaining symbols, M, Gr, and R, 

 are three of the four least often duplicated. But then, as between these 



