144 Archaic Sculpturings. 



" double-disc " emblem there is related, but only by a dis- 

 tant cousinship, to the two discs at Craignarget. 



The symbol-group of a man and a woman on either side 

 of a tree, with a serpent at times introduced, is of pre- 

 Christian origin. The figures, narrowly considered as Adam 

 and Eve, and broadly as the human family, are accompanied 

 by the Tree which stands for knowledge and the serpent 

 which represents wisdom. This old, world-wide symbol 

 seems to crop up in Pictland twisted and changed in a curious 

 fashion. 



The Fall was, of course, one of the most popular of 

 Biblical episodes in early Christian times, with a meaning 

 somewhat modified from its pagan and earlier significance. 

 During the early Christian centuries it was portrayed fre- 

 quently in Europe, and it occurs late in pre-Norman times 

 in the British Isles in undisguised form, but in the Pictish 

 territory it seems to occur in a guise not easily identifiable. 

 It is just possible that the Picts obtained it from a Pagan 

 prototype, and not from a portrayal of the Old Testament 

 story, though their neighbours in the south and west of 

 Scotland did obtain it from a Biblical source. As became 

 their style and genius, the Picts delighted to symbolize it in 

 figures abbreviated, abstract, and recondite. 



The Pictish variants of the symbol of a pair of discs, 

 with tree, or of two discs alone more often than not con- 

 nected by a bridging, would appear to have affinity with the 

 undisguised picture of the Fall. What is perhaps an early 

 Pictish variant shows the conventional tree quite unchanged, 

 but the human figures are shrunken and depicted without 

 trunk, arms, or legs, and merely as discs set on either side 

 of the tree. A central dot in each disc lends strength to 

 the design. 



This representation is seen with other Pictish symbols 

 on the wall of the Court Cave, Fife.^* The eliminating 

 operation is, however, at this stage by no means finished, for 

 in some cases the tree has disappeared, leaving two circles 



24 E.C.M., 370, fig. 388. 



