Bigger — The ^^ Dextera Dei^^ on High Crosses of Ireland. 



«3 



The Semitic origin of the symbol, however, cannot be denied. 

 Upon an Assyrian obelisk two hands are shown issuing from a solar 

 disk.i 



It appears amongst the Chaldseans.^ 



According to Lenormant, the celebrated pyramid of Borsippa was 

 called " the Temple of the E-ight Hand," and one of the names of 

 Babylon was "the city of the Hand of Ann," or, what amounts to the 

 same thing, of " the Celestial Hand."^ 



The hand uplifted towards the sky is an oft-repeated image on the 

 Ex Vote of Carthage, and even at the present time it is figured on 

 native houses in Palestine and Morocco to ward off evil spirits, and in 

 ■our own day is used when taking an oath by certain religious bodies. 

 Jews and Mahomedans also swear with uplifted hand, as did many of 

 the early pagan races. Of course we are all familiar with the Old 

 Testament scene of the hand writing on the wall at Belshazzar's feast 

 {vt'de Daniel v. 5). 



A similar power was believed to remain in the hands of the chief- 

 tains of Australia after death, when they were detached from the body 

 and preserved by the tribe ; and even in Ireland we find elaborately 

 wrought reliquaries made to contain the hands of saints and holy 

 persons. 



A hand also decorates the pedestal of the Holy Tree in a bas-relief 

 at Bharhut.* 



In these cases the full hand is shown with the fingers extended as 

 «,t Clonmacnoise and Monasterboice. 



The hand almost as often as the eagle surmounted the Roman 

 standard, and in such case symbolised power and triumph. 



In a miniature of the ninth century, in the Bibliotheque Rationale 

 of Paris, the Divine Hand is depicted in the centre of a nimbus, with a 

 Cross emanating from the clouds.® This hand is similar to that of 

 Kells in that only the back is shown. 



This is the manner in which the hand was invariably shown in 

 (Jhiistian times down to the eleventh century, and no other representa- 

 tion of the first person of the Trinity is ever found until after that period. 



iG. Eawlinson, "The Five Great Monarchs," vol. 2, p. 233. 



-Lagard, " Mithra," pi. xxvii., fig. 5. 



^Gazette Archeologique, 1877, p. 31. 

 r • *For these references, see "The Migration of Symbols," by the Count Goblet 

 d'Alviella. 



s See " Christian Iconography," Sidon and Stokes, vol. i., pp. oo, 202, 204-6, 

 210. 



