120 



with others found elsewhere had suggested corrections which a further 

 examination proved to be necessary. In fact, the intelligence of the 

 antiquary, having a general notion of what he may expect to find in an 

 inscription, gives no small help to his senses of sight and touch in read- 

 ing it. 



Looking for the first time at the inscriptions now laid before the 

 Academy, the Bishop would hazard one or two conjectures. It ap- 

 peared to him probable that the inscription on the south side pillar, 

 No. 1 (see p. 1 10), ended with the nameEiTTiAS, or Eettias, notBoxTAis. 

 The former of these frequently occurs on Ogham monuments existing in 

 Kerry. He also suggested that the inscription read by Mr. Brash as 

 Igu Maqi Dag (Boofing Slab, No. 8, p. 109) may prove to be Ltjgu 

 Maqui Deg, the last three letters being the commencement of the name 

 Dego, occurring in the inscription on the north side pillar No. 4 (see 

 p. 112). This name is better known to us in the nominative form, 

 Dichu, which we meet in the life of St. Patrick. 



Without attempting to offer an extempore criticism on the readings 

 and translations of the inscriptions proposed by Mr. Brash, he observed 

 that he thought that in the inscription on the roofing slab No. 1 (see p. 

 106), he recognizes a name Nocati, or Nogati, which he had seen else- 

 where. He also directed attention to the element Cuna in the inscrip- 

 tion on the roofing slab No. 7 (see p. 108), which, in Ogham proper 

 names, represents the Con of ordinary spelling. According to this view, 

 the first word in the inscription would be the genitive case of Con- 



LAEDH, Or CoNTAECH. 



The Bishop reminded the Academy that the almost universal occur- 

 rence of the word Maoj in the Ogham inscriptions, and the fact that 

 these inscriptions consisted in general merely of names and patronymics, 

 had been announced by him in his first communication on this subject 

 to the Academy. 



He also observed that the case of Drumlohan, like that of Dunloe, 

 near Killarney, is a pipe, one of those places in which we may 

 expect to find Ogham monuments. The Brehon Laws, as quoted 

 by him in a former communication, refer to Oghams preserved in 

 Firts as evidences of the ownership of land ; doubtless, because they 

 exhibited the names of persons who had long before lived upon it. 

 Some of the Ogham monuments entombed in caves are so much 

 weather-worn, that they must have stood exposed to the air for ages 

 before they were built into ? the places where they have been dis- 

 covered. 



The Bishop declined to discuss the theory proposed by Mr. Brash 

 as to the persons who introduced and used the Ogham character 

 in this country. At the same time he intimated his belief that the 

 Ogham does not represent the language, or the alphabet of a colony 

 which migrated into Ireland in such remote times as Mr. Brash seems 

 to point to. But, whatever be the value of these speculations— and 

 their interest cannot be denied — the Bishop declared his conviction that 

 the deciphering of the inscriptions will give us materials from which we 



