[ " ] 



By the word facred, in the tranflation of this antient epitaph, 

 is fuppofed to be meant the order of the Druids : in the original 

 it is uaf, of which the uaemh and uaoimh of the moderns are 

 but various writings, all fignifying the fame thing, viz. facred, 

 heavenly, bleffed, &c. And from this circumftance we are led 

 to underftand that the Druids paid the laft honours to the re- 

 mains of the warlike Conan, by celebrating his funeral obfequies 

 according to the ufual folemnity with which the heroes of anti- 

 quity were always interred, fuch as is fet forth in the fragment 

 of the poem before recited ; and this they were not denied even 

 by thofe wljo in their life-time might have been their profefTed 

 mortal enemies. 



The word which I tranflate hieroglyphic is in the original 

 Oca, of which the Ogam of the moderns too is but a various 

 writing. This is a convincing proof that this occult charader 

 was different from that which was ufed in common ; for to 

 what other purpofe would it be thus fo particularly fpecified ? I 

 tranflate it hieroglyphic, only becaufe it was the peculiar charader 

 of the Druids, in which they concealed all their myfteries. This 

 is verified by the concurrent teftimonies both of the traditions of 

 the antients, and of the fimple and undifguifed narratives of our 

 authentic records, which bear not the moft diftant appearance 

 of deception, but mention it as a plain matter of fad. Many 

 forms of this charader are ftill preferved in a manufcript of very 

 high antiquity yet extant, called the book of Ballymote ; and 

 Sir James Ware, a gentleman whofe candour cannot be eafily 

 fufpeded, tells us, in his colledions of the antiquities of this 

 country, that he had in his pofTeffion an entire volume written 

 m it; which monument I am very apprehenfive has fufFered 



(B 2) the 



