572 



the most hideous and frightful-looking female figure which 

 the stonecutter could devise. There is, however, in the 

 best sculptured figures a certain expression of countenance 

 which resembles that of death. In these the hair is very 

 long, and there is no appearance of the tonsure, which occurs 

 in others. The former have a strong resemblance to a Mith- 

 raic figure, published in the ArchEeologia, XIX. p. 74, and 

 also to another figure, in Ingrami " Monumenti Etruschi," 

 T. 3, Tav. XXIII. Both of these, it is thought, were also 

 used as fetishes, or figures intended to drive away the evil 

 influence, and obtain good luck instead. 



The hair of some of the figures appears to be intended to 

 represent a peculiar tonsure, and the persons of women repre- 

 sented are apparently attenuated by fasting and thatcourse of 

 life which the Gnostics and ascetics so strongly insisted on, as 

 the means of gaining the victory over the hylic or psychic 

 (together, the evil principle) in themselves, and what St. 

 Bridget so ably contended for in herself, and those who 

 placed themselves under her rules. In these almost skeleton 

 figures we have an analogy between the rule of abstinence 

 of the Gnostics, and also their notion about amulets, abraxes, 

 fetishes, and the evil genius ; and hence the probability, 

 that the use to which they have been assigned is the 

 correct one, independent of any other considerations which 

 arise from tlic practices now said to be efficacious in Ireland, 

 &c., in ejecting the evil genius, or averting the evil eye ; and 

 which formerly, as well as at present, were common in Africa, 

 Italy, Spain, Ireland, &c. 



With the ancient Egyptians the crux ansata appears to 

 have been the great emblem of good luck, prosperity, and 

 soforth. It appears to have been the antidote to the evil 

 eye which we find mentioned in Prov. xxiii. G, and xxviii. 22, 

 and the Gnostics and early Egyptian Christians appear to 

 have adopted it, without any alteration or change in its form 

 from that used by the old Egyptians. The crux ansata ap- 



