[Illustration:  CUNEIFORM CHARACTERS.]

It is to be regretted that the subject of Ogham writing has not been taken up by a careful and competent hand.[161] There are few people who have not found out some method of recording their history, and there are few subjects of deeper interest than the study of the efforts of the human mind to perpetuate itself in written characters.  The Easterns had their cuneiform or arrow-headed symbols, and the Western world has even yet its quipus, and tells its history by the number of its knots.

[Illustration:  The Quipus]

The peasant girl still knots her handkerchief as her memoria technica, and the lady changes her ring from its accustomed finger.  Each practice is quite as primitive an effort of nature as the Ogham of the Celtic bard.  He used a stone pillar or a wooden stick for his notches,—­a more permanent record than the knot or the Indian quipus.[162] The use of a stick as a vehicle for recording ideas by conventional marks, appears very ancient; and this in itself forms a good argument for the antiquity of Ogham writing.  Mr. O’Curry has given it expressly as his opinion, “that the pre-Christian Gaedhils possessed and practised a system of writing and keeping records quite different from and independent of the Greek and Roman form and characters, which gained currency in the country after the introduction of Christianity.”  He then gives in evidence passages from our ancient writings which are preserved, in which the use of the Ogham character is distinctly mentioned.  One instance is the relation in the Tain bo Chuailgne of directions having been left on wands or hoops written in Ogham by Cuchulainn for Meav.  When these were found, they were read for her by Fergus, who understood the character.  We have not space for further details, but Professor O’Curry devotes some pages to the subject, where fuller information may be found.  In conclusion, he expresses an opinion that the original copies of the ancient books, such as the Cuilmenn and the Saltair of Tara, were not written in Ogham.  He supposes that the druids or poets, who, it is well known, constantly travelled for educational purposes, brought home an alphabet, probably the Roman then in use.  “It is, at all events, quite certain that the Irish druids had written books before the coming of St. Patrick, in 432; since we find the statement in the Tripartite Life of the saint, as well as in the Annotations of Tirechan, preserved in the Book of Armagh, which were taken by him from the lips and books of his tutor, St. Mochta, who was the pupil and disciple of St. Patrick himself.”

[Illustration:  Ogham stone]

[Illustration:  SAGRANI FILI CUNOTAMI]