MacNeill — Notes on Irish Ogham Inscriptions. 367 



' descendant.' Khys treats it as a collective noun, meaning ' kindred.' 

 The latter meaning, understood as " posterity, offspring,' appears to suit 

 best the various uses of the term. In oghams, mucoi is most often preceded 

 by maqi, once by inagene 76, but in a good proportion of instances no such 

 word precedes. In Macalister's sense, mucoi not preceded by maqi must 

 denote ' the descendant,' i.e. the chief descendant of the eponymous 

 ancestor. Then maqi mucoi would imply that this mucoi was regarded as 

 patriarch of the kindred, who were called his sons and daughters. There 

 is an exact, perhaps too exact, parallel to this in the modern use of 

 Ua Neill, Ua Briain, etc. When the surname alone designates an individual, 

 that individual is the chief. But mac Ui Neill, mac Ul Bhriain, etc., may 

 be used of any male member of the family. It seems as simple to under- 

 stand "A mucoi B" to mean "A of the posterity of B," and "A maqi mucoi 

 B " to mean " A son (i.e. member) of the posterity of B," the formulae being 

 equivalent in value. In MS. usage, moccu has not been found preceded 

 by mace or ingcn ; and since it is found applied to ecclesiastics and to 

 contemporary members of the same kindred,^ it can have no meaning 

 of ' chief.' ^ 



10. Moceii is not confined to the usage after personal names. The 

 following are some instances of general usage : — 



Fintenus gente mocu Moie Adamnan. 



Mailodrcmus gente mocu Bin ib. 



Lugheus gente mocu Min ib. (twice). 



Grutli de genere Buntir L. Arm., beside Trenanus mocu Buntir Adamnan. 



Venit Patricius ad insolas Maccu Char L. Arm. 



Sedens loco hi nDruim moccu Echacli L. Arm. 



Druim moccu Blai, place-name, Onomasticon. 



Gluain moccu Nois = Clonmacnois. 



Inis moccu Chuinn = Inchiquin island. 



macraid A. maccu raith LB 94. 



Coica lin moccu Luigdech, coica lin moccu Nemongin. 'Fifty was the 

 number of moccu L., etc' (Expulsion of Dessi, Eriu, iii, p. 138.) Followed by 

 coica laech do maccaih Oengusa, * fifty warriors of the sons of Oengus.' 



These instances seem to prove that moccu (= ge7is, genus, macrad, maccaih) 

 is a collective term, and that following a personal name it is to be understood 

 as a partitive genitive. 



1 See instance of moccu Gein, Eriu, I.e. 



- In Eriu I.e., not yet understanding the consonant -system in oghams, I supposed that Ogham 

 mucoi must produce ms. muchu (better mochu), and hence suggested wrongly that moccu arose from 

 a pretonic contraction of the locution maq(as) mucoi. 



