359 



It is deserving of notice that, of the diphthongs, none but 

 the first has been as yet found on ancient monuments. 



Some modern writers state that p was denoted in Ogham 

 by a short stroke parallel to the stem-line. This, however, 

 seems to havd been a recent contrivance, resorted to by per- 

 sons ignorant of the manner in which that letter was repre- 

 sented by those who used the Ogham in ancient times. The 

 proper mode of writing/) was by bh; and the Uraicept as- 

 signs a reason for this practice, viz. that p is an aspirated b. 



We are also presented with a spiral character, said to de- 

 note z. This too is a modern invention, growing, like the 

 one just mentioned, out of ignorance. The ancient Irish, 

 when they had occasion to write words containing the letter z, 

 substituted pc or p o for it. Thus in the Liber Hymnorum we 

 find the names Elizabeth and Zacharias spelled Elistabeth 

 and Stacharias ; and in the copy of the Uraicept, in the Book 

 of Lecan, the name of the Greek letter Z, is written fceca. 



The fourteenth letter of the Ogham alphabet was certainly 

 intended to represent z ; but the Irish character employed to 

 signify its power being somewhat like that which stands for y, 

 it was supposed to denote that letter. Others, again, have 

 taken it for x, contrary to all ancient authority. 



The inventors of the Ogham alphabet gave to its letters 

 the names of trees or plants, as follows : 



b. 



beicb, 



birch. 



m, 



muin, 



vine. 



I, 



luip, 



quicken. 



5' 



5opc, 



ivy. 



F, 



peapn, 



alder. 



"5. 



njeoul, 



broom or reed 



r» 



fail, 



sallow. 



fc or z, 



pcpaip, 



blackthorn. 



", 



nin, 



ash. 



V, 



puip, 



elder. 



b, 



huacb, 



hawthorn. 



a, 



ailtn, 



fir. 



0, 



DUip, 



oak. 



o, 



onn, 



furze. 



c, 



cmne, 



holly? 



u, 



up, 



heath. 



c, 



coll, 



hazle. 



e. 



eaoao, 



aspen. 



q or cu, 



queipc, 



apple. 



', 



loab, 



yew. 



