2 34 Proceedings 01 the Royal Irish Academy. 



there is no reason for any one group occurring in one place more than 

 another. The north groups D and E have the slight connexion that the 

 monsters are spitting fire at each other, the flames crossing the rib, while 

 F and G in the south may imply that the greyhound is pursuing the 

 animal in the next compartment. As a rule, the drawing is crude but 

 spirited ; the horseman and greyhound are full of life. Some of the cattle 

 and goats are clearly in motion, and the stag, worried by the wolf, though 

 motionless, is well drawn. The only other connected group is F north, 

 the herdsman and his cattle and goats. The one unmistakably religious 

 subject on the ceiling is the angel with the scales ; but the wolf may symbolize 

 Satan, the stag (" desiring the waterbrooks ") the fervent believer, and the 

 cock the need of vigilance, such symbolic designs being widespread. It may be 

 too wild a guess that the conies (the " feeble folk that make their nest in the 

 rock ") may typify weak but faithful believers, as they do in late medieval 

 treatises on animals (bestiaries). The two birds in K and L (south') are 

 possibly the symbolic pelican and phoenix. 



Along the crown of the arch at the summit of the interspaces were plaques 

 or bosses of encircled crosses. The first has an outer ring of yellow, a thick 

 one of red, and a cross of red segments, all marked on the soft plaster with a 

 compass ; a lighter cross has been painted over it as an afterthought. There 

 are yellow patches in each segment of the stronger cross. The second (B) is 

 nearly destroyed ; it has two brown circles, with a ring of short red bars and 

 a loop inside ; the third (C) has red circles and a strong cross ; one arm is leaf- 

 shaped ; all the others have perished with the plaster, much of which has 

 fallen away. 



As for the figures in the interspaces — North — A, three animals, one a 

 yellow fox or dog, and two rabbits, 1 one red and one yellow ; B, a large scribed 

 figure of an angel holding the scales of judgment ; the face and nimbus are 

 yellow, the hair, edges of the wings, and bar of the scales, faded red, the rest 

 is only scribed ; C, covered with yellow branches and fruit on a " blue " ground ; 

 D, a long scribed serpent divided into squares of red and " blue " ; from its 

 open jaws spout flames, thin lines of red and yellow across the roof-rib at a 

 second monster 2 in E. This has a wolf's head, lion's body, and eagle's claws, 

 with perhaps a trace of wings ; it is red, and over it in the narrow angle is a 

 trace of a red figure. Below all is a very curious design, apparently a Chinese 

 dragon in brown, with a wing and three red tails. It is, however, only when 

 we examine it carefully that its whole interest is apparent. The artist scribed 



1 Sabbits were introduced only very recently into Clare Island. 



2 One recalls the old tale where the men of Connacht see two beasts, each as big ns a mound or 

 peak fighting so furiously that fiery swords darted out of their jaws and reached to the sky. (Voyage 

 of Bran, vol. ii, p. 60, from Egerton MS., 1782.) 



