Vol. I., page 155.] foray, he found, on the lawn of the Dun of the
sons of Nectan, a pillar stone with this inscription in Ogham--"Let
no one pass without an offer of a challenge of single combat." The
inscription was, of course, intended for all to read. Should there
be any bardic passage in which Ogham inscriptions are alluded to as
if an obscure form of writing, the natural explanation is, that
this kind of writing was passing or had passed into desuetude at
the time that particular passage was composed; but I have never met
with any such. The ancient bard, who, in the Tan-bo-Cooalney,
describes the slaughter of Cailitin and his sons by Cuculain,
states that there was an inscription to that effect, written in
Ogham, upon the stone over their tomb, beginning thus--"Take
notice"--evidently intended for all to read. The tomb, by the way,
was a rath--again showing the ethnic character of the alphabet.

In the Annals of the Four Masters, at the date 1499 B.C., we read
these words:--

"THE FLEET OF THE SONS OF MILITH CAME TO IRELAND TO TAKE IT FROM
THE TUATHA DE DANAN," i.e., the gods of the ethnic Irish.

Without pausing to enquire into the reasonableness of the date, it
will suffice now to state that at this point the bardic history of
Ireland cleaves asunder into two great divisions--the mythological
or divine on the one hand, and the historical or heroic-historical
on the other. The first is an enchanted land--the world of the
Tuatha De Danan--the country of the gods. There we see Mananan with
his mountain-sundering sword, the Fray-garta; there Lu Lamfada, the
deliverer, pondering over his mysteries; there Bove Derg and his
fatal [Note: Every feast to which he came ended in blood. He was