148 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



is sketehily indicated, and there is a creditable but not completely successful 

 attempt at reading the inscription on the sinister edge. 



As now reconstructed the cross stands 5 feet 1| inch high, and is 3 feet 

 1 inch broad across the arms. It is cut out of a slab of sandstone 3 inches 

 thick. In shape it resembles the preceding cross, as we have already noticed ; 

 but it differs in being inscribed, and in bearing elaborate ornamentation on 

 one face. The other face is quite plain. 



The sculptured face is so badly weathered that at first sight it seems 

 absolutely impossible to make out the ornament. The decipherment offered 

 ou the accompanying Plate is the result of a microscopic examination of every 

 square centimetre of the face of the cross — a task that occupied the better 

 part of two days, followed by four days spent over a number of rubbings. 

 Even with every care, I cannot feel sure that I have made out the whole 

 pattern beyond the possibility of cavil ; the stone is too far gone I o allow 

 anyone that satisfaction. The most doubtful part is the central pattern of 

 spirals. The spirals are there, though they have to be very carefully looked 

 for; the fret in the middle is also fairly distinct. But when it comes to 

 linking the spirals up, one with another, the would-be decipherer is confronted 

 with ambiguities, between which he must be content to choose the most 

 probable. 



The panel on the sinister side of the base remains intact, but that on the 

 dexter side is almost entirely .lost ; and the small portion that remains is not 

 sufficient to tell us what device it bore. The remaining panel bears in rather 

 high cavo rilievo the figure of an animal, from whose mouth depends the leg of 

 a man. This device is familiar in Hallstatt art ; it appears several times on the 

 famous figured buckets of the early Iron Age. But it is curious to find it in 

 a monument of Celtic Christian art.' 



On each of the edges of the stone there is an inscription, beginning on the 

 under side of the horizontal arm, running round the hollow at the intersection, 

 and down the stem. Above the horizontal arm the edge is quite plain. The 

 end of the sinister arm has a simple quasi-key pattern and a similar design 

 was probably cut ou the opposite end, but is now quite worn away. 



We have seen that Wakeman and the Board of Works have given partial 

 readings of the inscription on the sinister side. But that on the dexter side 

 has never been noticed before, so far as I can find. It must, of course, have 

 been seen dozens of times, as it is obvious to anyone entering the church; but 

 no one seems to have taken the trouble to try to read it. 



' In Juurnal, Royal Society of .Antiquaries of Ireland, 1908, p. 276, Mr. Crawford 

 has given a good illustration of this panel, with some interesting observations. 



