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84 THE HISTORYthe most authentic words of the language, andoriginally stands for this notion alone. Indeedafter Patric had converted the nation, and, for thebetter propagating of christian books, introducdthe use of the Roman letters, instead of the antientmanner of writing, their primitive letters,very different from those they now use, bagan bydegrees to grow absolete; and at last legible onlyby antiquaries and other curious men, to whomthey stood in as good stead as any kind of occultcharacters : whence it happen'd that Ogum, fromj-^ignifying the secret qfivriting, came to signify 5^cretwriting, but still principally meaning the originalIrish characters. There are several manuscripttreatises extant, describing and teaching thevarious methods of this secret writing; as one inthe college-library of Dublin*, and another in thatof his grace the duke of Chandois f. Sir JamesWare, in his A^itiqiiities ofIreland, relating how the(mfient Irish did, hesides the vulgar characters, jnac^lise also divers ivays and arts of occult ivriting, ccUVdOgum, in ivhich they ivrote their secrets; I have,continues hej, an antieiit parchment hook full of* 'Tis, among other pieces, in The Book of BuUlmore ; beingthe Ibbih ¥olum in (he Dublin catalogue, in pcirchmcnt, folio,D. IS.+ Anonymi cujusdam Tractatus de variis apud nibernos veteresoccultisscribendi formuiis, Hibernict* 0^«;» dictis.t Praeier characteres vulgares utebantur etiam veleres Hiberni>ariis occultis scribendi formuiis seu artificiis, Ogum dictis, qui-»