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ihe fame fate with many more of our antient authentic docu- 

 ments. 



When all Druidical rites were abolifhed by the intro- 

 dudion of Chriftianity into this kingdom, the chief bards and 

 feanachies made the Ogam charadler a private property of their 

 own ; but to what ufe they appHcd it is not eafy to determine. 

 Wherever this chara6^er is to be met with in fepulchral infcrip- 

 tions, it may be inferred, that fuch are the tombs of kings, 

 princes or chieftains, who fignahzed themfelves by their valour and 

 warlike deeds, and were therefore thus honoured. In all other 

 refpecfls, obfcurity, and to contain much within a narrow compafs, 

 was the purpofed end and objed of the Ogam ; for, from the con- 

 ftrudion, it contains much within a fmall fpace, and is ultimately 

 founded on an alphabet of different charaders, which is evident 

 even from the explication of the infcription before us, wherein 

 the letters F and N, (which are feverally reprcfented by the 

 charaders TiT or | j [ j | , ) are com mutable, a property which 

 they have not in any other part of our language; and it is given 

 them here probably to render the whole fcheme more obfcure, 

 this commutation depending, as has been already obferved, on 

 the two different arrangements of the Irifh alphabet : And 

 thus it is left to the reader's choice to which of the two 

 letters, F or N, he will apply either of the aforefaid marks ; 

 but the fenfe will always dired him to the proper mode of 

 application. 



There are three fpecies of the Ogam handed down to us in 

 the writings of the antients : the firft is called Ogam Craebh, or 

 the Ogam of Branches, from the fimilarity it bears to the branches 



of 



