35S 



and from the Uraicept, an ancient Irish grammatical treatise, 

 of which several copies are extant. It is the more necessary, 

 as errors have crept into the statements vphich all the most 

 distinguished Irish antiquaries have made respecting the 

 Ogham. O' Flaherty, MoUoy, M'Curtin, Harris, Ledwich, 

 and O'Connor, not to mention General Vallancey, Mr. Beau- 

 fort, and Mr. O'Flanagan, have fallen into mistakes as regards 

 the power or number of the letters. 



At the close of the Ogham tract in the Book of Bally- 

 mote are given about eighty different forms of the alphabet, 

 exhibiting the various modifications to which it was subjected. 

 The following, which is the^r*^ given, appears to have been 

 its original form : 





bl ppn hb ccqiKigngpcii aoue i 



From this the transition was an easy one to the form in 

 which it is commonly presented, viz. : 



b I p r 



II Ml Mil inn 



TTignspc p aou e 



I II III nil lllll hb c c q 



In fact, all that was necessary was to make the stem- 

 strokes of the letters in the primitive alphabet continuous. 



The next change made seems to have consisted in the ad- 

 dition of characters denoting diphthongs : 



ea 01 ui la ae 



XObx* 



Of these the two which stand for ea and oi, as may be 

 collected from a passage in the Uraicept, were first added. 

 The three latter appear to have been occasionally employed 

 in other ways. Thus the symbol for u was made to stand 

 for y. The symbol for la is said to have been also used for 

 p ; and we are told that the symbol for ae denoted likewise x, 

 cc, ch, acb, and ucb. 



