We are here met by a difficulty as to whether MoDovinia is to be construed with the legend on the other edge of the stone or by itself, as the writing is not continuous. On the whole I am inclined to the former view, and to render the inscription thus: '(The Grave or Stone) of Erc, son of the Son of Erca,[1] (daughter or descendant) of MoDovina.' It is possible that a word meaning daughter or descendant has been effaced by the weather before MoDovinia on the right-hand edge of the stone; but that is not essential, nor would the construction in the absence of it be more abrupt than in the case of Corc Duibne, or Duben's Corc, in the Book of the Dun. I have, however, failed to detect any more traces of writing on that part of the angle,[2] but the existence on the stone of this little word mo, to be identified possibly with Irish mo 'my,' is one of its peculiarities. It marks the mythic ancestress as the object of special endearment and respect, probably of divine reverence. The same thing occurs in the case of other such mythical personages as Ailill Aulom or Ólom (p. 391), who is sometimes called Ailill Mohaulum, and in that of Mo-Febis,[3] whose sons were Mog
- ↑ Erca would be the early nominative feminine corresponding to the genitive Ercïas of the inscription. One reads of Clann Erci, so-called from their mother, in Scotland: see the Bk. of Fenagh, pp. 330-1.
- ↑ It is right to say that Mr. Brash, p. 179, omits the particle mo or mu—for the vowel is not certain—after quoting an inaccurate reading of Mr. Windele's; while in his posthumously published work on Ogham Inscriptions, Sir S. Ferguson, whose recent death I deeply deplore, calls (p. 41) the scorings here in question 'characters not now Legible;' but the examination of the stone by my wife and myself, under more favourable circumstances, in the summer of 1883, led us to the unexpected conclusion which has just been stated.
- ↑ For Mohaulum, see the Bodley MS. Laud. 610, where we have Ailill Mohaulum, 94b2, 95a1, Ailella Mohauluim, 95b1, Mohaulum
