MacNeill — Notes on Irish Ogham Inscriptions. 369 



somewhat exceptional formula in No. 196 may be translated 'of Anblomaith 

 of the tuath of Mace lair [and] of the sept [thereof] Aui Acher.' In early 

 MS. usage erne, ?/«, is frequently used to denote the sept. S. Cormac 

 Ua Liathain the voyager was a contemporary of S. Columb Cille in the sixth 

 century. He is surnamed, not from his grandfather, but from a remote 

 ancestor, Eochu Liathan, eponymous ancestor of the Munster sept Ui Liathain, 

 who, if he ever lived, must have lived in the third or fourth century. Hence 

 I am of opinion that when we find avi in oghams we should expect to find it 

 followed, not by the name of a grandfather, l^ut by the eponym of an ancient 

 sept.^ 



14. Cell 0. I. celi, nom. cele = *celias, has two clear instances : Alatto cell 

 Battigni 106, and . . . cell Ave Q,vecea 216. Macalister translates 'devotee' 

 following such names as Cele De, Cele Crist, Cele Petair, in Christian 

 nomenclature. But this is a secondary sense. Cele means a 'tenant, vassal, 

 follower, or retainer under a chief, flaith.' Cele and Jiaith are correlative 

 terms. 



15. Niotas and netas I take to be two distinct words, niotas = nephew, and 

 netas = champion. The nominatives and eventually all the cases fall together 

 in MS. spelling. The two meanings, niaec setlmr, ' sister's son,' and trenfer, 

 ' champion,' are given in Cormac's Glossary for nia, niae. 



16. Niotta, niott, appears to present a late Ogham vocalization of 

 *neutas < '^nepidos = Latin nqjotis. The MS, nom. should be *nm = *netis 

 < *neuts. MaccniOy Cathnio, are found in AU 708, 76!), and in them the nom. 

 seems to be transferred from the stem ncut- to the stem net-. 



17. A similar exchange of stems is found in the gen. ^' In regno Coirpri 

 Nioth Ferl' '^filios Nioth Fruicli^ L. Arm. 0. 1, niotli can hardly be derived 

 from netas. Coirpre Nia Fer cannot mean ' C. nephew of men,' and against 

 Nioth Fruich stands the ogham Netta Vroicc(i) maqi muccoi Tre [n] a [In] ggo 

 J, 1903, p. 76. Hence I think that the confusion of stems, which is complete 

 in Mid. I., had already begun in 0. 1. 



18. niot- occurs in : 



Dumeli maqi Glasiconas niotta Cobranoras 71, NiottVrecc maqi Covatagni 93. 



In 71, the sense of 'nephew' (perhaps 'descendant in the female line') 

 seems apt. It is not quite so clear in 93, but may denote some kind of 

 religious affiliation. 



Macalister's equation of Niott Vrecc with Netta Vroicc is not sustained by 

 any known instance of vocalic interchange in the Ogham period. " The 



1 Ehys reads Av[i] Vlatiami as the coinmenceinent of an inscription, J, 1903, p, 81. I think 

 Anm or Anme may have been the first word. 



K.I. A. PKOC, VOL. XXYII., SKCT. C. [54] 



