OGHAM. 
partial and cool ebfervers ; and fir Richard Colt Hoare, in 
his Journal of a Tour through cia bas sed ftates, 
that the marks which he obferved on many of the {tones 
ea very little refemblance to letters, aad a great fimilarity 
o the ornaments that he had found in the ancient Britifh 
d Lihwyd, who yielded to no man in zeal for 
the executes of the Celtic tribes, while he united an un- 
common degree of coolnefs and judgment with his antiqua- 
rian fondnefs and knowledge, though he defcribes the mo- 
nument at New Grange very particularly, does not even 
conjecture, that oa rude carvings on the ftones were letters 
or Ogum chara 
_Colonel Vallancey, i in the fecond volume of his Collefanea, 
sae in 
im 
og 
5 
[am 
a 
fs) 
tg 
ee! 
Be 
is) 
t=] 
ef 
the tenth centur at i 
place, that the claim of thefe in{criptions to the Ogum cha- 
racter is very doubtful; and fecondly, even allowing that 
they are in that character, and of the age afligned to them, 
the antiquity of this charaéter does not rife nearly up to the 
period of Irifh Paganifm ; and, therefore, no proof can be 
rounded on thefe croffes for the Druidic origin or ufe of 
the virgean Ogu it is not meant to be denied, that 
fubfequently to ve introduétion of Chriftianity, it was em- 
ployed in Ireland; and probably on monuments in the tent 
century, though this fir Richard Colt Hoare is ftrongly 
difpofed to dou 
In the i sere of colonel Vallancey, a paflage i is 
quoted from an Irifh MS. which ftates, that ‘ Fiac 
ral oak we ded at the battle of Caonry, = funeral deashi 
or fton was et his tomb was infcribed his 
Os um name.’ 
a 
go 
Fst) 
hi the 
ro) riftian ny bt cand they fuppofed 
ad advanced a confi 
beyond a doubt that its a was 2 Dr idic. 
difcovery was ma de b r. 0” eye at that time a 
for in May 
treacheroul flain by the Fenii of Fin, at an affembly m 
the fun: his fepulchral cinema was raafed in in 
tie alae f{! His wailing dirge was fung, and his name 
is infcribed in Ogum chara¢ters on a flat ftone, on the very 
ack movintain of Callan.’’ 
The fir obje& which Mr. 0” Fiawean difcovered on 
mount Callan, which is about nine miles from Ennis, was 
ng in the church-yard p 
engraven chen, very unlike letters.”’ As 
had negle&ted to take his grammar hi 
thoroughly prepared G colle& the pee fenfe of the in- 
{criptien ; but from the rules in his memory, he decyphered 
i ta Conan Colgac 
: 
ong-le gged. n e, and confulting the 
rules given by eolone Vallaee cey, in as grammar, for decy- 
araéters, he found the meaning to be 
Colgac cos-obmda ;” beneath this 
Irifh grammar, for decyphering the 
found fome difficulty in epee: out the meaning of the in- 
hile he was mufing over 
hi 
whom the 
ved their origin, generally write from the right 
hand to ae left, took the letters backwards ; 3 ie. In a con- 
had reference to the fa 
of the firft reading. 
of the Ogum 
fimilar lines, o 
fter having made himfelf perfectly acquainted with this 
{cale, he again gg to the ftudy of the infcription; when 
no fewer than five different meanings: the 
firft has been aia given the fecond is, ** Na flida nica 
Conan Colgan cos-obmda;”? obfcure not the remains of 
Conan the Fierce, the aera footed: the third is, “Adm 
af ;’’ long let him he at eafe 
o 
on 
—s of the Sacred : 
a foc a cina del fan ;’’ lon 
of this | 
fifth and laft is, «« Almho Coffag dos es cu os afit a lid cuat;” 
ith reverential forrow e ing se hha his 
c e is in 
the ftile and manner of the aoceals defcriptive both of 
the man and the place; and though the la anguage be very 
ancient, yet it is equally familiar and eafy to iuch as are 
well 
