Ogam Inscriptions in Ireland, Scotland, and ... - House of Dubhros

IN IRELAND, WALES, AND SCOTLAND. 5derivative, it is, most probably, the Tree-Rune, of which, Ibelieve, no examples have been found older than those ofMaeshow, belonging to the period of the Jerusalem pilgrimages.5._But the Irish Bethluisnion does not exist, as the Futhorc NO oriinaldoes, in the form of a lettered original alphabet.None but 2Roman and Ogham letters have, as yet, been found on theCeltic monuments of these islands. The Bethluisnion is onlya vocabulary of letter-names adaptable to the letter-signs eitherof the Roman alphabet or of the fuller and, it is thought, the 4*older form of the Futhorc. If the Futhorc and Tree-Rune behas beenexcluded, we should conclude that the Oghamfounded on the Roman alphabet, re-named and marshalledinto the Beihluisnion sequence. The account, however, which Ogbam allegedthe Irish themselves give of it is, that it was brought in by the b^f -nearly half-mythical colony of the Tuatha de Danaan, whom theybring from the northern parts of the world through ^Gotland. -$rwhich seems6. There is one feature in the Oghamto establish that its framers were of the Latin rather thanthe Teutonic branch of the European family. The * h 'aicme (h, d, t, c, q) is apparently an anagramdrawn from the partly anainitialletters of the cardinal numbers, one, two, three, four, granjlJ 'Uc>five that is, in insular Celtic speech, Jicen, da, tri, cathar, cuig.Whether it was an original lost Irish alphabet, a Futhorc ofthe longer sort, or the Latin alphabet of the Romans thatformed the foundation for the Ogham, it must be recognisedthat the people who adjustedit to its fourfold division andlocative values in the Oghamic system did not express theirnumerals ' four " or " five " with an initial p,as Teutonic or not TeutonicCymric speakers probably would have done. A fifth division or (J ) mric -of five further signs for the shorter expression of the diphthongshas been added, at a later date. It is called the Forfeada or The Forjiada.11over-trees," as being supplementary,and does not enter intothe older examples.X o )X(The first and third of these are the only ones I have found inlapidary use.7. If derived from the Rune, its framers have not