in which the Roman characters were held by the people and their
instructors the bishops and monks. Let those precious old symbols
be called Ogham, or by any other name--there must have been something
of the kind.

If any one insists that such was not the case, he must of necessity
admit that the oral teaching of the Ollamhs was so perfect and so
universally current in the same formulas all over the island, that
such oral teaching really took the place of writing; and in this
case, also, which is scarcely possible, however, Ireland had an
authentic history. This last supposition, certainly, can hardly
be credited; and yet, if the first be rejected, it must be admitted,
since it cannot be imagined that subsequent Irish historians,
numerous as they became in time, could have agreed so well
together, and remained so consistent with themselves, and so
perfectly accurate in their descriptions of places and things in
general, without anterior authentic documents of some kind or other,
on which they could rely. Any person who has merely glanced at
the astonishing production called the "Annals of the Four Masters,"
must necessarily be of this opinion.

In no nation in the world are there found so many old histories,
annals, chronicles, etc., as among the Irish; and that fact alone
suffices to prove that in periods most ancient they were truly a
civilized nation, since they attached such importance to the
records of events then taking place among them.

But the Irish were, moreover, a branch of the great Celtic race,
whose renown for wisdom, science, and valor, was spread through
all parts, particularly among the Greeks. The few details we