385 



more of a natural ridge on the face of the stone than an actual angle. 

 The letters are sharply and clearly cut, and are all perfectly legible, so 

 that, comparing my own copy with those of Dr. Rowan, Mr. Windele, 

 and others, I found no difference. The consonants are marked by short 

 strokes, deep and broad ; the vowels, with one exception, by oval dots, 

 well sunk — that exception is the first vowel, 0, the second letter of the 

 inscription, which is expressed by two short strokes across the line, as 

 if an error of the engraver, or as if he changed his mode of representing 

 the vowels. This peculiarity has been noticed by Dr. Rowan. 



We find also in this inscription the Ogham equivalent for the 

 diphthong EA, which is the only character of that class yet found on 

 these monuments, and only on a few, as on Nos. 1 and 10 of the Collec- 

 tion of inscribed Ogham stones in the Museum of the Royal Irish 

 Academy; on a stone from Tinahely, county Kerry; on one at St. 

 Olan's churchyard, county Cork; and from the Rath of Roovesmore, 

 same county, but now in the British Museum. 



- 1 1 11 x„ , „,/ „ , n.#w 



8 OQUQEAFFMO N I 80 QUE I 



Dr. Rowan has inserted in his paper a translation of this inscrip- 

 tion by the late Rev. John Casey, formerly of Dingle, a well-known 

 Irish scholar, and one intimately conversant with the antiquities of 

 this district ; but one whose enthusiasm sometimes got the better of his 

 judgment, particularly in dealing with inscriptions of this class. This 

 monument, being found in the track which our mystic history and tradi- 

 tions assign to the invading Scoti, after their landing at Inbher 

 Sgeine, the rev. gentleman conceived it probable that it marked the 

 grave of some one of the fallen chiefs, or captains of the invaders, and 

 that the name of such might be found on it; he accordingly reads it : — 



" So cu uarf mo ni so cu 0 iW," 



i. e. " Here is martial sun officer Druid Ni, here illustrious alas Ni." 



Mr. Casey states, that Ni is Nighe, oghamically written, the same 

 as Yighe, according to Keating, the father-in-law of the Amazon 

 Fais, who was slain in the battle at Sliabh Mis, that he was one of the 

 Druids whom our Irish Livy designates under the names of War and 

 Mther. The original inscription, however, cannot by any means be 

 made to bear out his interpretation. To form the word Uarf^ he turns 

 the fifth character, Q, into an R, and omits the diphthong EA. To 

 bring out the words 0 Ni, he transposes the sixteenth group — namely, 

 the vowel U into an 0 ; and the seventeeth letter, which is a palpable 

 R, being five strokes across the stem line, into an N. I need not 

 remark, that a translation, founded upon such an unwarrantable muti- 

 lation of the original inscription, cannot be accepted as of the slightest 

 philological value. Mr. W. Williams, of Dungarvan, wh o, I am informed , 

 has examined and copied this inscription, gives the following reading : — ■ 



" Soc Jiuid thi ffmon il loco ari," 



