357 



as meet us continually in documents relating to the early his- 

 tory of the Christian Church in Ireland. 



If this question respecting the age of our Ogham monu- 

 ments could be settled by a single instance, there is a stone 

 in the churchyard of Kinard, in the county of Kerry, which 

 might be referred to as furnishing decisive evidence. This 

 monument is inscribed with a cross, 

 and the name mariani written in 

 the Ogham character ; and there 

 are no grounds for pretending that 

 it is less ancient than any other 

 Ogham monument in existence. 

 Now, not only does this name, ma- 

 RlANUs, which is equivalent to the 

 Irish Maolmaireo, belong to Chris- 

 tian times, but we have reason to 

 suspect it to be as late as the tenth 

 or eleventh century. 



But as there are Ogham monu- 

 ments, which neither by their own 

 nature, nor by that of the inscrip- 

 tions upon them, furnish us with any 

 means of directly estimating their 

 antiquity ; and as, moreover, it is al- 

 leged that the Ogham alphabet and 

 character, having been invented in 

 the most remote Pagan times, con- 

 tinued in use after the introduction 

 of Christianity into this country; 

 it becomes necessary to analyse the 

 structure of this alphabet itself, in 

 order to obtain materials for estimating the time and manner 

 of its formation. 



The following brief account of the Ogham alphabet is 

 taken from the tract on Oghams in the Book of Ballymote, 



