Blair Collection > History of the Celtic language

214 HISTORY OF THE
mew, to mew ; by analogy, wi/api, not hardy, fond
of the fire as a cat ; wiiagan, an infant given to
crying ; mianan, an audible yawn, &c. Hierogly-
phic, a compass, because it surrounds or includes.
In this sense of enclosing or including, the char-
acter m will be found to be sometimes sacred, as
in Amon (Am-Oin), the name of a deity, also of a
river in Scotland ; as also Amesbury, Amcotes,
and many more.
" Cha teld claidheamh an duilli',
Gus an crunar Righ Seumas !"
Or THE Character N.
Poiver, An, Bn, Na, Ni, Sfc.
We have already treated, at considerable length,
this sound. One of its departments is to stand for
the Celtic Aun or Ain, a river ; hence its hiero-
glyphic sign is an undulatio7i or a icave, thus,
/vvv^j together with two jars supposed to contain
the sacred water of the Nile ; as also the lion, as
we have shown under L. N, as a radix, however,
is not confined to one leading idea any more than
another sound. We have a practice, when we hear
any thing new or wonderful, of smacking the tip of
the tongue against the upper gum : thus, nd, net,
or ne, ne, and followed up, not unfrequently, by
phalal phala! as much as to say, off" with you ! you