The Scandinavian kingdoms contain numerous runic monuments, some of them written _boustrophedon_, or with the lines beginning alternately from the right and left; and there are many interesting inscriptions on Swedish gold bracteates. The Celtic races, from their connection with the Scandinavians, became acquainted with their alphabet, and made use of it in writing their own language; and hence we have, in the Western Islands of Scotland and in the Isle of Man, runic inscriptions, not in the Anglo-Saxon, but in the Norse character, with, however, a few peculiarities of their own. Some of the most perfect runic inscriptions are in Man; others of similar description exist at Holy Island, in Lamlash Bay, Arran; and there is an inscription in the same character on a remarkable brooch dug up at Hunterston, in Ayrshire. Dr. D. Wilson considers that the Celtic population of Scotland were as familiar with Norse as the Northumbrians with Saxon runes. We sometimes find the Norse runes used to denote numerals, in which case the sixteen characters stand for the numbers from 1 to 16; _ar_ combined with _laugr_ stands for 17, double _madr_ for 18, and double _tyr_ for 19. Two more letters are used to express higher numbers, as _ur ur_, 20; _thurs thurs os_, 34.[13] ANGLO-SAXON ALPHABET. The Anglo-Saxon alphabet, and the forms and sounds of the letters, are shown in the following table:— [Illustration] Two useful Anglo-Saxon letters have disappeared from modern English,—namely, Þ or þ th (_th_in), and Ð or ð th (_th_ine). The Anglo-Saxon letters which vary from those now used were doubtless mere corruptions of the Roman forms,—viz. the capitals A, C, E, G, H, M, S, and W, and the small letters d, f, g, i, r, s, t, and w. Several marks of abbreviation were used by the Saxons, as ꝥ _that_, ⁊ _and_, &c. These were not original members of the alphabet, but were introduced probably for despatch. About the year 1567, John Daye, who was patronized by Archbishop Parker, cut the first Saxon types which were used in England. In this year, _Asserius Menevensis_ was published by the direction of the archbishop in these characters; in the same year, Archbishop Ælfric’s _Paschal Homily_; and in 1571, the _Saxon Gospels_. On the two following pages will be found a plan of cases for Saxon types. [Illustration: SAXON UPPER CASE.] [Illustration: SAXON LOWER CASE.] GERMAN ALPHABET. Outside of Germany, there is perhaps no country in which German printing is so extensively carried on as in the United States. We present a table of German characters, with their names, and their corresponding forms in English.