ed. One
instance is the relation in the _Tain bo Chuailgne_ of directions having
been left on wands or hoops written in Ogham by Cuchulainn for Meav.
When these were found, they were read for her by Fergus, who understood
the character. We have not space for further details, but Professor
O'Curry devotes some pages to the subject, where fuller information may
be found. In conclusion, he expresses an opinion that the original
copies of the ancient books, such as the Cuilmenn and the Saltair of
Tara, were not written in Ogham. He supposes that the druids or poets,
who, it is well known, constantly travelled for educational purposes,
brought home an alphabet, probably the Roman then in use. "It is, at all
events, quite certain that the Irish druids had written books before the
coming of St. Patrick, in 432; since we find the statement in the
Tripartite Life of the saint, as well as in the Annotations of Tirechan,
preserved in the Book of Armagh, which were taken by him from the lips
and books of his tutor, St. Mochta, who was the pupil and disciple of
St. Patrick himself."

[Illustration: Ogham stone]

[Illustration: SAGRANI FILI CUNOTAMI]

We give two illustrations of Ogham writing. The pillar-stone is from the
collection of the Royal Irish Academy. It is about four and a-half feet
high, and averages eleven inches across. It was found, with three others
similarly inscribed, built into the walls of a dwelling-house in the
county Kerry, to which it is believed they had been removed from the
interior of a neighbouring rath. The bilingual Ogham was found at St.
Dogmael's, near Cardiganshire. The Ogham alphabet is called
_beithluisnion_, from the name of its two first letters, _beith_, which
signifies a birch-tree, and _luis_, the mountain-ash. If this kind of
writing had been introduced in Christian times, it is quite unlikely
that such names would have been chosen. They are manifestly referable to
a time when a tree had some significance beyond the useful or the
ornamental. It has been supposed that the names of the letters were
given to the trees, and not the names of the trees to the letters. It is
at least certain that the names of the trees and the letters coincide,
and that the trees are all indigenous to Ireland. The names of the
letters in the Hebrew alphabet are also significant, but appear to be
chosen indiscriminately, while there is a manifest and evidently
arbitrary selection in the Celtic appellations. The nu