574 



same kind, may probably be a type of the doctrine of absti- 

 nence or mortification of the flesh,* which to the ascetic was 

 his daily cross, and antidote to the hylic or evil principle, 

 which he considered himself bound to bear, and which his 

 master before him had borne victorious to death, and by 

 which he became exalted to the highest rank in heaven, con- 

 sistent with our extract from the Irish MS., in which we find 

 at least one of the doctrines mentioned, which the ascetics 

 magnified into a constant rule of life, and made it the means 

 of conquering the evil principle in themselves, to which these 

 figures, it is thought, may have been charms or external an- 

 tidotes, like the cross and bells, &c., which they ornament, 

 which are covered with dog and knotted serpent patterns, 

 crossing each other continually, and supposed to be emble- 

 matic of the ascetic principle, or daily cross, and antidotes 

 of the evil eye or principle. By this rule the stone in the 

 museum presented by Mr. Webber, which apparently re- 

 presents two dogs fighting, may have been an ingenious 

 device to hide from common eyes, but to exhibit this princi- 

 ple where it would be understood, instead of a shela-na-gig 

 of the common form, and so it may have been intended 

 originally as a fetish or charm to the house or castle from 

 whence it was removed. Besides the three figures now in 

 the Museum, I have been informed of the existence of many 



* The emblem, or device, for Christianity on the Roman medals, given by 

 the Rev. Dr. Walsh, is analogous to the monstrous figures of the double dog 

 and serpent patterns referred to, which, it is surmised, may be emblems of the 

 ascetic principle. He observes : " It may be that Dioclesian wished to repre- 

 sent only the depraved and corrupt sectarians, of which this figure (in his plate) 

 is the emblem ; and that his more atrocious colleague, careless of distinction, 

 exhibited the genius of Christianity, under any form, as equally the object of his 

 persecution." There is a figure called the Idol, at Cashel, with fish-tail ex- 

 tremities, with a face like the shela-na-gig presented by Mr. Halpin. It ap- 

 pears to connect, or identify, the designs on the Roman medals with those Irish 

 figures. 



