the Gaelic language, the Auraicept claims that Fenius Farsaidh discovered four alphabets, the Hebrew, Greek and Latin ones, and finally the ogham, and that the ogham is the most perfected because it was discovered last. The text is the origin of the tradition that the ogham letters were named after trees, but it gives as an alternative possibility that the letters are named for the 25 members of Fenius' school. In the translation of Calder (1917), This is their number: five Oghmic groups, i.e., five men for each group, and one up to five for each of them, that their signs may be distinguished. These are their signs: right of stem, left of stem, athwart of stem, through stem, about stem. Thus is a tree climbed, to wit, treading on the root of the tree first with thy right hand first and thy left hand after. Then with the stem, and against it and through it and about it. (Lines 947-951) In the translation of McManus: This is their number: there are five groups of ogham and each group has five letters and each of them has from one to five scores and their orientations distinguish them. Their orientations are: right of the stemline, left of the stemline, across the stemline, through the stemline, around the stemline. Ogham is climbed as a tree is climbed References Bibliography James Acken, Structure and Interpretation in the Auraicept na nÉces. Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller e.K., 2008. Anders Ahlqvist, The Early Irish Linguist (Auraicept na nÉces), Helsinki 1982 R. Thurneysen, "Auraicept na n-éces", in: ZCP 17, 1928, pp. 277–303. Erich Poppe, "Die mittelalterliche irische Abhandlung Auraicept na nÉces und ihr geistesgeschichtlicher Standort", in: Theorie und Rekonstruktion, edd. von Klaus D. Dutz & Hans-J. Niederehe. Münster: Nodus, 1996, 55-74. Erich Poppe, "Natural and Artificial Gender in Auraicept na nÉces", in: SH 29, 1995–97, 195-203. Erich Poppe, "Latinate Terminology in Auraicept na nÉces", in: History of Linguistics 1996. Vol. 1: Traditions in Linguistics Worldwide. Eds. David Cram, Andrew Linn, Elke Nowak. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 1999, 191-201. Erich Poppe, "The Latin Quotations in Auraicept na nÉces: Microtexts and their Transmission", in: Ireland and Europe in the Early Middle Ages. Texts and Transmission, edd. Próinséas Ní Chatháin & Michael Richter. Dublin: Four Courts. 2002, 296-312. Umberto Eco, The search for the perfect language (1993, book translated in English 1995). — Serendipities : Language and Lunacy