294 



Proceedings of the Rot/a! Irish Academy. 



has proved an absolute cut de sac, and is now universally discredited. But 

 that the Ogham character was on occasion used for cryptical purposes may be 

 taken as certain. The series of Ogham alphabets in the Book of Ballymote is 

 no mere vacuous pastime of the scribe of that compilation ; it is a treatise on 

 cryptography, a collection of the variants of the Ogham alphabet invented 

 and used from time to time by ingenious literati for purposes of secrecy. 

 Besides the Logie " wheel," we possess two 2 iphic inscriptions in 



nil — the formula LMCBDV on the Glenfahan stone, and the similar 

 formula lmcbtm on the bead-amulet from Ennis. I have not succeeded in 

 hitting upon the solution of these riddles, but I am inclined to believe that 

 the name of a pagan god, or perhaps the initials of a number of names of gods, 



Fio. S— Thi '• jrpher. 



may ! nder these si - nts. If this interpretation 



of th( snfahan - inld be of especial 



• • in tliis connexion. It would )»■ a valuable monument of the 



i which we have aln d t" trace in the Pictish 



sculpt tter-up of the monument was at a loss t" choose 



. i faith and the new. Hi make his peace with both 



_■ an elal a the face of the stone, and by invoking the 



iieront! I It is not difficult to understand why the 



tor the maker of the monument well knew 



what would happen if he had written the god's name without concealment. 



- [>hus Bagge, Dtr Runtnitcxn con /Sal (Stockholm, 1910). 



