204 SECRETS OF EARTH AND SEA 



King Alexander III of Scotland expelled the Norse 

 Vikings from the Isle of Man in A.D. 1266, and substituted 

 for their armorial emblem in the island, which was a ship 

 under full sail, the three legs of Sicily. Frederick II, 

 King of Sicily, married Isabella, the daughter of Henry III 

 of England. Alexander III of Scotland married Margaret, 

 another daughter of Henry, and Henry's son, Edmund 

 the Hunchback, became King of Sicily, in succession to 

 his brother-in-law Frederick. Alexander of Scotland was 

 thus brother-in-law both of Frederick II and of Edmund, 

 successive kings of Sicily. It was in this way that he 

 was led, when he added the Isle of Man to his kingdom, 

 to replace the former Norse emblem of the island by the 

 picturesque and striking device of that other island 

 Sicily with which he had so close a family connection. 



The tendency for drawings of men and animals when 

 used as decorative designs to degenerate, in the course 

 of time and repetition, into more and more simple lines, 

 to become more and more " grammatized " and simplified, 

 till at last their origin is hardly recognizable, is both a 

 very remarkable and a very usual thing. The process 

 of degeneration, step by step, can often be traced, and 

 curious remnants of important parts of the original drawing 

 are found surviving in the final simplified design. The 

 paddles and other carvings of some of the South Sea 

 Islanders show very curious " degenerations " of this kind. 

 A carved human head with open mouth becomes by re- 

 peated copying and simplification a mere crescent or hook, 

 which is the vastly enlarged mouth of the original face. It 

 alone survives, and is of enormous size, when all other 

 features and detail have been abandoned. In some 

 carvings of a face the tongue is shown projecting as an 

 indication of defiance. In course of simplification in 

 successive reproductions the face becomes a mere curved 

 surface with a large pointed piece standing out from it ; 



