Oghamica : in a letter to J.G.A. Prim, Esq. / by Samuel Ferguson.
- Samuel Ferguson
- Date:
- 1873
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Oghamica : in a letter to J.G.A. Prim, Esq. / by Samuel Ferguson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![one which any person would be likely to invent, neither was Mac Curtin a man to whom dishonesty of this kind could justly be imputed. One can- not look at the careful obliteration of many such legends without a suspi- cion that some of the names removed have been of this class, and belonged to the period when these excesses of ascetic zeal were present in the neighbouring churches of Western Europe. The terms which, in such a point of view, would answer to ‘ pecus’ are Muc (porcus), Rette (Caper), and, I imagine, Birrotais, (Sus parturiens, San. Corm.); but it is difficult to conceive that one aiming at self-abasement would impute the reproach to the parent, or that ‘ Maqi’ in such cases could be regarded as governing the associated genitive. And this seems the proper point for introducing [thirdly], valeat quantum, the opinion of Algernon Herbert as to the meaning of the Hoianau, or verses beginning * Listen, little Pig,’ and other porcellan allusions in old Welsh mystical poetry. I know the great danger one risks in trusting to any conclusions of this most learned but visionary writer. He conceived, as you are aware, that after the departure of the Homans from Britain, a form of what he call Neo- Druidism developed itself in the early Christian Church of these islands. With what arguments he has sustained his views may be seen by consulting his ‘Britannia after the Romans,’ his ‘Neo-Druidic Heresy’ and ‘Cyclops Christianus,’ all very vague, mystical, and unsatisfying efforts of what one must admit, all the while, to be a very acute mind stored with remark- able rarities of learning. What he says,1 then, respecting the members of his supposed corrupt British Church of the fourth century, is this :—‘ In the language of the Neo-Druidie heresy, its members were swine, and the inferior members little pigs. It is a symbol or metaphor entirely pe- culiar to the defection from the true faith wrought in this island, and spread in Ireland.’ His fuller exposition will be found in his ‘Neo- Druidic Heresy,’ at pages 118-124. He there insists that traces of this peculiarity existed in the Bardic schools of Wales down to the eleventh century, instancing the title ‘ Prydydd y Mock,’ or Poet of the Pigs, given to Lywarch ap Llwelyn, a bard of that period. This may, or may not be, illu- sory. But if the whole fabric be not a baseless vision, we should conclude that ‘ Filii Porcus’ would be more consonant to reason than ‘ Filius Porci.’ We have had an instance of what seems to all reasonable apprehension to be ‘ Filii Sacerdos.’ If it should appear on further search that other orders, degrees, or offices of an early Christianity are expressed in these legends, and that not in dependence on, but governing the associated ‘ Maqi,’ it would go far to account for this wide spread formula, on grounds not repugnant to the philosophy of language or of history. The degree of Presbyter is actually recorded on one of these monuments, that of Sacerdos on another, that of Chore-bishop, to all appearance, on a third; the designation of Pilgrim, probably, on a fourth ; the grade of Sapiens on a fifth; and the relation of Cele on a sixth. The wide-spread ‘ Decedda,’ bears a remarkable likeness to Dean in its original form of a president often. Should further inquiry add substantially to these evidences, the general conclusion could hardly be avoided, that Ogham-inscribed stones are, in the main, Christian monuments. But it does not appear to be necessary to believe 1 “ Brit, after the Romans,” p. 108.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22458451_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
