Page:The Aryan Origin of the Alphabet.djvu/34

22 The Eddas. The runic alphabet of Bishop Ulfilas of Cappadocia adapted for his Christianized Goths in Greece and Byzantium contained several of the Greek letters then current in those regions.

Col. 19. Ogam or "Tree-twig" linear sacred script of the early Scots of Ireland and Scotland, dating to about 400 B.C. The forms and values of the signs and traditionally named after Ogma, a title of the Phœnician Hercules and "The Sun-Worshipper," are from Brash's classic work based on the Book of Ballymote. The letters A, I, E, O, B, S and X of its limited alphabet are seen to possess essentially the same number of strokes and relative forms as in the Sumerian. Col. 20. Ancient Welsh letters in their "Bardic" form and from the Lantwit Stone. Col. 21. Modern "English" or European letter forms, the so-called "Roman" letters, which, however, are now seen to have been current in Britain and the British Isles several centuries before the rise of the Romans and the foundation of Rome; and are thus more British than "Roman," The Gothic "Black Letters" are added, as their flourishes and angles seem to preserve vestiges of the old cuneiform style of writing the letters.