113 



The second figure was taken by us from an Adam and Eve 

 dish of fine brass we met with at the White Lion Hotel, at Bala, 

 North Wales, but the drawing only shows the bottom of the 

 dish, and is about half the actual size, the dish with its borders 

 being 16 inches in diameter. 



In this the figures are beaten in the brass. They are much 

 like the former, but the serpent appears a far more important 

 creature, having some pretensions to a human head with a 

 coronet of triple leaflets. We saw a dish of the same kind at 

 the sale of the late Eev. Eichard Digby's effects at Thornford, 

 which we should have secured only we could not glean anything 

 of its history. 



It was probably a copy of an older example, the lettering 

 around the edge of the dish being, if we remember rightly, the 

 Gothic form of the 14th century. 



With regard to the dates of the dishes before us we may per- 

 haps regard the upper example here figured as Italian Faience of 

 the 16th century. The lower or brass dish is probably about 

 the same period. 



With regard to the latter we may mention that it bears every 

 evidence of having been much in use, as on one side the rim is 

 a patch of brass to mend up the worn-out metal. As regards 

 the uses to which these utensils were applied it would seem that 

 at one period their employment was universal, and yet their 

 disuse seems to have been so sudden and so perfect that at pre- 

 sent we can only offer a conjecture as to their application. 



The figures clearly show that these dishes were connected with 

 religious rites and ceremonies, and we have somehow got the 

 notion — but cannot say whence derived — that they were used at 

 funeral obsequies, and perhaps as follows : — 



The dish filled with salt was placed on the stomach of the 

 corpse. The salt, from its antiseptic qualities, being employed 

 with the idea of keeping the atmosphere sweet and the surround- 

 ing conditions in a healthy state, while the weight of the dish 



