OGHAM. 
and unfupported. Itis even deftitute of any fupport sf 
might be derived from the fuppofed hy ae origin of t 
Trith nation 5 ; for though this circumftance, if well efta- 
able. ‘that the Irith 
he ti 
Trifh, in the third a. both sree this mode, and 
followed the weftern mode of writing from the left-hand to 
the right. 
r. O’Flanagan appears to have been fufpicious of the 
foundnel of the opinion fuggefted by his friend Mr. Bur 
ns an nd therefore applied to Mr. O’Connor, an * antiqua- 
rian of credit,’? who decides very peremptorily on the 
fubjed. 
« That the Milefian family,’? fays he, ‘imported letters 
into Ireland, aud that elr paar learned them from 
th urton judged well 
in averring that our earlielt {cribes aoe from the right- 
hand t re commo- 
ious ner of ing from eft to the right, and 
ilefian origin of the Irifh nation, a on the 
Phascen origin e Milefians, it is not here neceffary 
to fay any thing ; i on the other pofitions, or rather 
affertions, of Mr. O’Connor, a few remarks may be offered. 
He afferts that the earlieft Irifh {cribes wrote from the right- 
hand to the left: in proof and coal : this affertion he 
oes not offer a fingle argument or ority ; and indeed 
that would have been impoffible, for all ‘the Trifh MSS. are 
written from the left-hand to the right, es there is not the 
evidence that they ever wrote in an 
fay be expected, therefore, by the 
w Mr. O’ test r’s antiquarian Te 
ledge, t orted affertion fhould b 
admitted cane all other ae on this fubject. 
‘Connor, in his zeal to make out his point, unfortu- 
nately proves too much ; according to him, the Irifh fcribes 
he more commodious mode of writing from the 
"2 
r. O’Flanagan cannot furely expect that all his modes of 
reading and interpreting the infcription fhould be allowed 
him, if he agrees with Mr. O'Connor that the earlieft fcribes 
wrote from the right to the left-hand, and that the other 
mode was not brought into ufe till ‘the fourth and fifth 
centuries 5 3; he mu either ive up the ieee of the in- 
es of r > on the 
st) 
r han er: ee and to the 
evidence of all MS. and other infcriptions, that the ufual 
mode o was fro e left ri 
s will be confiderably curtailed, 
wi the abe which he makes, that 6 ‘ the number 
line from the broad to the narrow end of the ftone, he decy« 
e phers it from the {mall to the iat end; but as this, if no 
this mode\thofe cyphers which were properly below the 
horizontal mafter line, become above it, and vice ver/d ; and 
as the letters reprefented by the Ogum cyphers depend upor 
their pofition above or below this line, he thus gets a new 
fet of letters altogether. Certainly, if thefe liberties of 
- tranfpofing letters were ee and ufed 
quarians in general, they m 
their fancy, or hypothefis from any infcription or MS. : 
againft its alleged antiquity, than againft the cl t 
Druidic es sige ene or the Ogum Spat by the 
iy antiqua er plan a "Flanagan 
followed, and the futility of his interpretation. 
None of the firft four readings would be made out if 
the letters F and N, wherever they occur, were not com- 
muted ; but for this commutation no authority is given: it 
feems to have been entirely a thought of Mr. O' veers 8, 
in order to make out fome meaning 2 this infcription, or 
at leatt, fuch a meaning as fhow Prov the monument t 
be that of Conan; for, be it obferv 
n this? It was, indeed, necefflary that Mr. O’Flanagan 
fhould limit the rale he himfelf had laid down; for had the 
letters F and N been commuted in every inftance where they 
occur in this infcription, the name of Conan would not have 
firft or fecond readings ; 3 and as 
the ais got 
y retaining that letter, and the fecond n, by conta 
Ogun mark for f into that letter 
“ This commutability,’’ obferves Mr. O” Flanagan, ‘‘ of the 
letters F and N, depends on a cireumftance peculiar to the Irifh 
alphabet, it having two different arrangements ; one of which 
begins with B, L, N, and is called Beithluifnuin ; and the 
other with B, L, F, and is called Beithluisfearn ; 3 the latter 
is peculiar to the Ogum fyftem, but when it is neceflary 
for the conftruétion, it does not totally reje@t the former, 
which was the alphabet in common ufe, till Greek and Ro- 
man literature vifited this country, and made the Irifh 
range their alphabet, as far as it extended, confo 
h wn.’’ This paflage, though alia vente is oe 
i arks. It 
ee not ay reje& the Beithluifnuin 
as Mr. O’Flanagan confined the com- 
mutability of the Reo to the letters FandN? Had 
the arrangement of the two alphabets agreed in the order 
of all the letters except thefe, it might have been proper fo 
to confine the commutability ; but in the order of feveral 
Glee of the letters, the arrangement is different: but this 
9 eircumfance 
