Transactions. 127 
scrolls, each representing a vine with its branches alternately 
recurved, and bearing grapes in symmetrical clusters, a bird or 
beast lodging in each of the branches and feeding on the fruit. 
The vine is the most ancient subject of Christian art. It appears 
in the Catacombs, treated with all the grace and freedom of 
classic naturalism both in painting and sculpture. The Byzan- 
tine formalism reduced it to a mere running scroll, and in this 
conventional form it always appears on the monuments of this 
country, sometimes with and sometimes without the adjunct of 
the birds and beasts lodging in the branches.” 
The Runic inscriptions which are incised on the raised borders 
surrounding the scroll work on the two sides of the Cross are in 
the older variety of alphabet known as the Anglo-Saxon, which 
consisted of upwards of forty letters, and in which seem to have 
been embraced, more nearly than in any modern alphabet, the 
actual sounds of a language. 
“The inscription is arranged in vertical columns on either side 
of the panel of scroll work, extending from the top to the bottom 
of the narrow sides of the shaft of the Cross, with the exception 
of the first line, which runs horizontally across the top of the 
panel. Consequently it reads from left to right, across the 
first line in the usual way, then continues in a vertical line down 
the whole of the right hand border, returning to the top of the 
left hand border, and reading vertically again to the base. As 
the lower part of the Cross is more wasted than the upper, there 
are places where the reading fails towards the bottom of each 
border, thus making four gaps in the continuity of the inscrip- 
tion.” 
We come now to the story of the translation of the Runes, 
“which is in the highest degree interesting and instructive.” 
The first who attempted to read the inscription was Mr Thorleif 
Gudmunsen Repp, a learned Icelander and sub-librarian of the 
Advocates’ Library. He assumed the language to be a mixture 
of Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon, and translated accordingly. The 
value of his translation may be judged from the following. The 
lines which are now rendered— 
‘* Christ was on Rood, 
Whether there readily 
From afar there came 
The Prince to aid 
Sore I was 
With sorrow troubled,” &c, 
