In  Fri/'s  Panfographia,  P.  307,  we  have  the  following
account  of  the  manner  of  using  these  characters,  accom-
panied with  a  most  curious,  engraved,  specimen.  ''  The  ori"»
ginal  manner  of  writing,  amongst  the  ancient  Britons,  wa9>
by  cutting  the  letters,  with  a  knife,  upon  sticks,  which
were,  most  commonly,  squared,  and  sometimes  formed  into
three  sides:  consequently,  a  single  stick,  contained  either
four,  or  three  lines.  (See  Ezek.  xxxvii.  l6.)  The  squares
were  used  for  general  subjects,  and  for  stanzas,  of  four  lines
in  poetry :  the  trilateral  ones  were  adapted  to  triades,  and
tnglyn  milwyr,  or  the  triplet,  and  the  warrior^  verse.  Se-
veral sticks,  with  writing  upon  them,  were  put  together,
forming  a  kind  of  frame>  which  was  called  Pcithynen,  or
Elucidator." — Peithynen  imports  any  tablet,  or  small  body,
with  a  flat  surface,  more  especially  a  brick,  which,  ancient
authors  inform  us,  was  the  material  used,  by  the  old  Baby-
lonians, for  the  record  of  their  ftxcts.
272

Mr.  Owen  says,  further,  in  a  waste  leaf,  prefixed  to  the
second  part  of  his  Dictionary :  "  Each  [of  the  Bardic
letters]  had  anciently  a  simple,  appropriate,  character,  and
name,  having  so  much  resemblance,  in  form,  to  those  of
the  same  chiss,  as  the  analogy  of  sound  pointed  out  their
degree  of  athnity."

The  annexed  plate  contains  a  copy  of  this  alphabet,  in
its  due  order,  with  the  power  of  each  letter,  and  the  names
of  the  radicals,  as  I  was  favoured  with  them,  by  the  ingeni-
ous antiquary  last  mentioned.
