imaginative tales and poems. For the Christian authors of Ireland
subsequently to transmit those facts to us, they must evidently
have copied them from older books, which have since perished.

Prof. E. Curry thinks that the Ogham characters, so often mentioned
in the most ancient Irish books, were used in Erin long before the
introduction of Christianity there. And he strengthens his opinion
by proofs which it is difficult to contradict. Those characters are
even now to be seen in some of the oldest books which have been
preserved, as well as on many stone monuments, the remote antiquity
of which cannot be denied. One well-authenticated fact suffices,
however, to set the question at rest: "It is quite certain," says
E. Curry, "that the Irish Druids and poets had written books before
the coming of St. Patrick in 432; since we find THAT VERY STATEMENT
in the ancient Gaelic Tripartite life of the Saint, as well as in
the "Annotations of Tirechan" preserved in the Book of Armagh, which
were taken by him (Tirechan) from the lips and books of his tutor,
St. Mochta, who was the pupil and disciple of St. Patrick himself."

What Caesar, then, states of the Druids, that they committed every
thing to memory and used no books, is not strictly true. It must
have been true only with regard to their mode of teaching, in that
they gave no books to their pupils, but confined themselves to
oral instruction.

The order of Ollamh comprised various sub-orders of learned men.
And the first of these deserving our attention is the class of
"Seanchaidhe," pronounced Shanachy. The ollamh seems to have been
the historian of the monarch of the whole country; the shanachy
had the care of provincial records. Each chieftain, in fact, down