* * * * *
Minor Notes.
_Iona._--The ancient name of this celebrated island was _I_ (an island), or
_I-Columbkille_ (the island of Columba of the Churches). In all the ancient
tombstones still existing in the island, it is called nothing but _Hy_; and
I have no doubt that its modern name of _Iona_ is a corruption, arising
from mistaking _u_ for _n_. In the very ancient copy of Adamnan's _Life of
St. Columbkille_, formerly belonging to the monastery of Reichenau (_Augia
Dives_), and now preserved in the town library of Schaffhausen, which I had
an opportunity of examining very carefully last summer, the name is written
everywhere, beyond the possibility of doubt, _Ioua_, which was evidently an
attempt to give a power of Latinised declension to the ancient Celtic _I_.
It was pronounced _I-wa_ (_i.e._ _Ee-wa_). Who first made the blunder of
changing the _u_ into _n_?