to follow the Mac Carty pedigree; but a tiresome repetition of names, occasioned by the scantiness of them in an exceedingly numerous family, present continual causes of perplexity to the general reader.  The names of Donough, Cormac, Teague, Florence, Dermot, Owen, and Donnel, constitute almost the whole catalogue used by the Mac Carties[3] for a period exceeding six hundred years.[4] This difficulty is heightened from the entire Sept being, in point of fact, without a sirname, as the followers of most chieftains in Ireland as well as Scotland assumed that of their lord.  In the reign of Edward IV. a statute was enacted, commanding each individual to take upon himself a separate sirname, “either of his trade and faculty, or of some quality of his body or mind, or of the place where he dwelt, so that every one should be distinguished from the other.”  But this statute did not effect the object proposed, and Spenser, in his “View of Ireland,” mentions it as having become obsolete, and strongly recommends its renewal.

    [2] This tomb, according to Archdall’s “Monasticon Hibernicum,”
        stood in the middle of the choir of Kilcrea Abbey, with the
        following inscription:—­

        Hic.  IACET.  CORMACVS.  Fil.  THADEI.  Fil.  CORMACI.  Fil.  DERMITII. 
        Magni.  Mc.  Carthy.  DNVS de.  MVSCRAIGH.  FLAYN.  AC.  ISTIVS. 
        CONVENTVS.  PRIMVS.  FVNDATOR.  An.  Dom. 1494.

    [3] The original name of a sept or clan was Carty, supposed to be
        derived from Cartheigh, which signifies an Inhabitant of the
        Rock; and Mac, denoting “son of;” was used before the father’s
        Christian name for the purpose of distinction, as, Mac Cormac
        Carty expressed Carty, son of Cormac; this manner of designation
        appears discontinued on the introduction of a greater variety of
        names, and the Mac alone retained by the elder branches.

    [4] Amongst the Harleian MSS. the Vol.  No. 1425, contains pedigrees
        of Irish nobility; from the ninth to the twenty-second page is
        occupied by those of “Mac Cartie More,” Mac Cartie Reagh, and
        all other Mac Carties, brought down to the year 1615; but though
        curious for reference, there is little worth the trouble of
        transcribing.  The most common female names in the Mac Carty
        pedigree are, Katheren, Elin, Honnor, Joan, and Grany.

The military and historic recollections connected with Blarney are doubtless of sufficient importance to give an interest to the place; but to a curious superstition it is perhaps more indebted for celebrity.  A stone in the highest part of the castle wall is pointed out to visitors, which is supposed to give to whoever kisses it the peculiar privilege of deviating from veracity with unblushing countenance whenever it may be convenient—­hence the well-known phrase of “Blarney.”