106 



Fourthly. Imperfection of copies, as well as of the inscriptions 

 themselves, from weatherwear and other injuries. 



Fifthly. The pre-conceived ideas or prejudices of the translators, 

 leading them to imagine what the inscription ought to be, and thence 

 torturing, misplacing, and misreading the characters in every possible 

 way, in order to bring out allusions to some local historic fact, or to 

 the name of some famous mythic chief, king, or druid, or of some deity 

 supposed to have been worshipped in pagan times. 



Eejecting such illusory modes of investigation, and taking up the 

 key alphabet from the Book of Ballymote, as adopted by the Eight Eev. 

 Dr. Graves ; and, with its assistance, comparing and carefully analyzing 

 a number of these inscriptions, the candid and patient investigator 

 will, I think, be led to the following conclusions : — 



Firstly. That the monuments are almost exclusively sepulchral or 

 monumental. 



Secondly. That in such cases they seldom record more than the 

 name and tribe name of the deceased ; with occasionally his profession 

 as a warrior, a poet, a judge, and sometimes an exclamation of grief, 

 as " alas," " woe is me," &c. 



Thirdly. That they are inscribed in the simplest and briefest man- 

 ner, connecting words scarcely ever used, and words frequently ex- 

 pressed by initials. 



Fourthly. That the word " Maqui," the genitive of son, occurs in the 

 majority of the monuments in some or other of its forms ; and that 

 where it thus occurs, it becomes the key word of the inscription; as 

 before, and after it, we are sure to find a proper name ; and that the 

 position of this word dictates the position in which the legend is to 

 be read. 



Having premised thus much, I shall now proceed to describe the 

 inscriptions. In the accompanying plan and sections I have numbered 

 all the large stones, both inscribed and uninscribed, and shall com- 

 mence with the roofing slabs. (See PL XV.) 



Roofing Slab, Wo. 1. — This stone is five feet in length, and nine 

 inches by eight inches in the centre ; there is a large fracture in the 

 upper front edge, and it presents to us two lines of characters on the 

 under angles. The inscription commences on the front angle, about 

 two feet from the end ; three strokes of the last character are on the top 

 edge, and is as follows : — 



MAN U MAG U N OGAT 1MO C 



The second line on the opposite angle : 



Hi 



ILL 



E M A C 



A 



