YEAVBRING BELL AND HAREHOPE PORT 



163 



The Virgin and child are shown seated in a rude trough, 

 from the back of which projects upwards the branch of a 

 tree, which is cut away into a T shape to provide a fixing 

 for the halters of cattle. There is something like a cushion 

 shown placed behind the Virgin. The figures of the mother 

 and child are very stifily drawn, each having the right hand 

 raised, something being represented in that of the Virgin 

 which cannot readily be made out. The figures of the Magi 

 are exceedingly vigorous. They are entering the sacred 

 presence with briskness and alacrity, and each is holding 

 aloft in his left hand the gift he brings. In order to 

 indicate the weight of the offering each supports the left 

 elbow in the palm of his right hand. The three figures are 

 almost exactly alike, and their dress is of the rudest type, 

 resembling what the Highland dress was in its early stage, 

 when the Highlander was termed "Eed-shank." Here, too, 

 the feet and lower limbs are without covering. The sculpture 

 is curious as giving the artist's conception of the appearance 

 of men of distinction, whose home was in the East. In the 

 vestry a slab of freestone, with a round hole in its centre, 

 was shown as the cover of a stone cist. It would be curious 

 to have such a hole in a cist cover, but enquiry did not 



