Blair Collection > Vestigia celtica

46
For very distinct examples qf this use of
air in the oldest Irish MSS. one may long
search in vain. And such a search is not
unlikely to be misleading, as well as fruit-
less. For the old Irish writers make use
of a preposition ar, in the different sense
of "from" or "against," which, at first
sight, a novice is apt to take for the word
of which he is in search — e.g., sochraite de
dommammd armtledaib demna, araslaigthib
dualche, arirnechtaib aicnid, arcechndidne
miduthrastar dam = God's army for my
defence from the temptations of devils,
from the wiles of the wicked, from my
nature's passions, and from every man
malevolent to me; Zeuss, 2nd edition, p.
624. But still the word, in its modern
form, is sometimes to be met with in the
oldest Irish writings : ^.^.,tesbanat boill diriu
=:want of members was on them, dorigcni
dia air7^iu de maid = what God wrought
on them of good {Ibid). It is, however,
in the form o{ /or, by aspiration fhor — 'or,
that this preposition usually appears in Old
Irish. Under this same form it also