322 



Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



to have been during the ninth and tenth centuries, after which I have seen no 

 example of it on such monuments. The latest is that on the tombstone of 

 Maelfinnia, who was probably the abbot Maelfinnia, the son of Spellan, and 

 grandson of Maenach, of Clonmacnoise, and whose death is recorded in the 

 Chronicon Scotorum, at the year 992, and in the Annals of Ulster and of the 

 Four Masters at the year 991. Of this tombstone I here annex an outline : 



The inscription reads : 



DO 



" A PRAYER FOR MAELFINNIA." 



Another characteristic ornament of more palpable meaning which also 

 occurs in some of our oldest churches, is that form of cross sometimes produced 

 by the interlacing of two ovals, and at other times more complicated, being 

 formed by the intersecting of four semi-ellipses and lines parallel to their major 

 axes, of which an example occurring in the monastery church of Glendalough 

 has been already given at p. 261. Of the more simple of these ornaments 

 there is an example on one of the upper apertures of the Round Tower of 

 Roscrea; and though I do not recollect many examples of these crosses 



