[7] As _Curci_ and _maqi_ for the genitives of Corc and mac. In later times the genitive ending i, became incorporated in the body of the word, making _Cuirc_ and _maic_ in the MSS., which latter subsequently became attenuated still further into the modern _mic_. Another very common and important form is _avi_, which has been explained as from a nominative *avios [for (*p)avios], Old Irish _aue_, modern _ua_ or _o_. Another extraordinary feature is the suffix _*gnos = cnos_, the regular patronymic formative of the Gaulish inscriptions. Another important word is _muco_, genitive _mucoi_, meaning "descendant," but in some cases apparently "chief." The word _anm_ or even _ancm_, which often precedes the genitive of the proper noun, as _anm meddugini_, has not yet been explained or accounted for. All these examples help to show the great age of the linguistic monuments preserved in Ogam. [8] "Ocus no bid in flesc sin dogres irelcib nangente ocus bafuath la each a gabail inalaim ocus cach ni ba hadetchi leo dobertis [lege nobentis] tria Ogam innti, _i.e._ Agus do bhíodh an fleasg sin do ghnáth i reiligibh na ngente, agus budh fuath, le each a gabháil ann a láimh, agus gach nidh budh ghránna leó do bhainidis [ghearradaois] tre Ogham innti." [9] See Zimmer's "Summary of the Táin Bo Chuailgne," _Zeit. f. vgl., Sprachforschung_, 1887, p. 448. [10] Under the word _orc tréith_. [11] The classical reader need hardly be reminded of the striking resemblance between this and the σήματα λυγρά which, according to Homer, Prœtus gave the unsuspecting Bellerophon to bring to the King of Lycia, γράψας ἐν πἰνακι πτυκτῷ θυμοφθόρα πολλά. [12] The "alphabet" laid before Fiacc, however, was not a list of letters, but a kind of brief catechism, in Latin "Elementa." St. Patrick is said to have written a number of these "alphabets" with his own hand.