160 



Archaic Sculpturings. 



symbol, as it occurs some hundreds of times on one page 

 alone. The sacredness of this emblem is apparent by its 

 being- placed on the coins and on sculptured stones near the 

 cross, and within the glory of specially sacred personages on 

 the manuscripts, such as the Psalter of Ricemarch and the 

 Gospels of MacDurnan. It is seen on the garments of the 

 Virgin Mary and the Evangelists in the Book of Kells. 

 Indeed, in that book its absence on some figures indicates the 

 antithesis of sanctity, for while the robes of Christ are 

 lavishly decorated with the symbol, the clothing of the Jews 

 (shown in the same picture) who arrested Christ bear no 

 vestige of it. It would be tedious, however, to refer to the 

 occurrences of the numerous variants. 



The variant of three parallel lines occurs, as on the Drum- 

 more stone (Fig. 21) and in other places in Scotland, some- 

 times without terminal pellets. The variant is seen on the 



Fig. 21 — Cross-slab at Drummore. 



