‘sovereignty’, ogmoracht ‘harvesting’, umaideacht ‘brasswork’, enaireacht ‘fowling’, iascaireacht no ibroracht ‘fishing or yew-wood work’. Miscellaneous alphabets The tract also contains a number of alphabets that perform an assortment of uses. Some of these are as follows: Macogam/Boy ogam: This is a technique for divining the sex of an unborn child. The name of the pregnant woman "is divided there unless she bear a child previously. If however she bear a child previously, it is the child's name that is divided there; and if there be a letter over, it is a boy. If it be an even number, it would be a daughter that will be born of that pregnancy." This seems to mean that a name with an odd number of letters foretells a boy, an even number a girl. Cossogam/Foot-ogam: This describes a way of signing ogham using the fingers against the leg. "The fingers of the hand about the shinbone for the letters and to put them on the right of the shinbone for group B. To the left for group H. Athwart the shinbone for group M. Straight across for group A, viz, one finger for the first letter of the group, two for the second letter, till it would reach five for the fifth letter of whichever group it be." Sronogam/Nose-ogam: This is the same as foot-ogam except the nose is used instead of the leg. "The fingers of the hands about the nose viz, similiter to right and left, athwart, across. Basogam/palm of hand ogam: manus aliam percutit lignorum. i.e. 'palm of hand variously strikes wood'. No other detail is given. Cend a muine/Head in Bush: This involves writing a letter to stand in for the whole letter name at the beginning of a word when possible e.g., to write simply CLE for certle or 'ball of thread'. Cend fo muine/Head under bush: This is the opposite of the above, where the letter stands in for the name at the end of a word e.g. MAELR for Maelruis Cryptic varieties The following are some of the more interesting examples of the cryptic ogham varieties (numbering as per Calder): No. 1 Aradach Fionn/Fionn's Ladder: In this variety each letter has its own vertical stemline. This form of Ogham inspired the theory that Ogham was first invented as a means of musical notation. According to Sean O’Boyle in his book ‘Ogam: The Poet's Secret’, Fionn's Ladder