MANUSCRIPT CONTRACTIONS, AND OGHAM.

Besides the abbreviations exhibited in page 3, many contractions are used in the Irish manu scripts. Various tables of them have been compiled, and attempts made to reduce them to general principles; but in a business so very arbitrary and fanciful as that of abbreviating, it may be readily conceived that no systematic arrangement, however ingenious, can be completely satisfactory.

The following tables, originally published by the learned General Vallancey, contain by far the best and most useful list of contractions that has yet appeared.

It is necessary to observe, however, that certain contractions made according to general rules, have not been inserted in the tables, viz.

When a vowel is placed over a consonant, it carries the force of , and its own power, either before or after the μ; as,

When the small is set over a consonant, it has the force of ear; ifs be doubled, the must be doubled also; as,

At the end of the table are inserted various characters, termed ceann fa este, the head of the ridge, or, con fa cafan, the reaper's path. The use of these is as follows. When a sentence ends in or near the middle of one line, the next sentence begins the next line; and when this line is completed, the vacant space of the line above is filled up, distinguishing the former period by one of these marks. This is the manner in which all the ancient manuscripts are written; thus,

0⋅ mj lannajn if cójp anй tionscajno ap Túf. JC cača hojore, amul ata an Oir is on dopus dljċċear tjoNFCAINT bljagajn ag tjonfcajnt o mj lanuajs. Read,

O mi lanuajr H cóir and confcAINT πχ τάς.

Or if on dopaj dljċċear Tjon scant caċa hojbre, amul ata an blagajn ag constant o mij Januajr,

We must begin first with the month of January. For every work ought to commence with the entrance, as the year begins with the month of Ja

nuary.

The Ogham is last in the table. This was an occult manner of writing, much used in monumental inscriptions, but also employed in religious writings. Of the innumerable kinds of Oghams that have been used, that which is inserted here is the most usual. It will appear upon inspection, that the letters are formed by the position of a certain number of strokes drawn above, across, or below one horizontal line; thus, one stroke below the line represents b, three above it, t, one obliquely across, m, &c.

FINIS.