[ 8 ] 



There was indeed another gentleman In the county of Clare, 

 a Mr. Lloyd, who publiilied an account of that country, in 

 which he made mention of Conan's monument on Mount- 

 Callan ; but as his explication of the infcription is exadly in the 

 words of my firft effort to that putpofe, I am apt to believe it 

 was from hearing what account I had given of it, rather than 

 from any fearch or difcovery of his own ; for his publication ap- 

 peared juft about the time of my firft vifit to the monument. 



After Mr. Burton and I had returned from the mountain, 

 having taken off the infcription very exadly, we endeavoured 

 to decypher it according to the rules given in Colonel Vallan- 

 cey's grammar for reading the Ogam charader ; and after we 

 had gone through the entire procefs, I was not a little furprized 

 to find it differed, in fome meafure, from what I held in memory 

 fince I formerly faw it. While I was ftill mufing over it, Mr. 

 Burton, calling to mind that the Phoenicians, from whom the 

 Irifh derived their origin, generally wrote from the right hand to 

 the left, took the letters backward, that is, in a contrary dircdion 

 from that in which we decyphered them ; and after he had ar- 

 ranged them from left to right, not being converfant in the Irifh 

 language himfelf, afked me what fen fe would they make.? I 

 found no difficulty in anfwering his queftion, and by this means 

 a fecond reading was found, which proved to be a continuation 

 of the former fenfe. And thus it lay determined until my ar- 

 rival in Dublin, where I had an opportunity of ftudying it ftill 

 more, and foon found the advantage of fo doing ; for upon 

 confulting the book of Ballimote, in the hands of Colonel Val- 



^ccy, I found there were different fcales of the Ogam cha- 

 "n each of which the number of fimilar lines, on what- 

 ever 



