NOTICES OF ARCIIAEOLOGICAI. PUBLICATIONS. 89 attention to the series of animals on the left side of the cross, as compared with the strange monsters forming the series of capital letters B, com- mencing the diHerent verses of the Beatitudes in the Book of Kells, of which specimens are given in Mr. Westwood's Palaeographia. The reverses of these stones will, however, in all probability be regarded with greater interest than the face of the Cross. Here we find a class of sculptures quite unlike those of the monuments of any other part of Great Britain or Ireland. Mingled with scenes of the chase and religious subjects, we see not only figures of various well-known animals, executed with great spirit, but strange monsters and objects of daily use, in frequent instances, apparently destitute of the slightest connexion with each other. Many of these figures, notwithstanding their rudeness, are highly valuable as illustrating the manners, customs, dresses, &c. of the ancient inhabitants of Scotland at the period when these monuments were erected. Thus, in Plates XVII. and XXII., we see the wai'rior on horseback, with spear, round buckler, &c. fully made out ; in Plate XVIII., a car drawn by two horses, with a driver and two passengers ; in Plate XVII., the mode of using the sling (the loAver figures in No. IV. being possibly intended for David and Goliath, who, however, is on horseback) ; a hai-p and harper. Plates II. and XIII. ; fighting with battle-axes, Plate XI. ; figures of priests, (?) Plates VI. and XVI. ; ancient chairs, Plate VI. ; long slightly-bent trumpets, Plate V. ; shields, spears, &c., Plate IV.; bow and arrow, Plate I. Tliis first plate, moreover, is valuable for its curious representations of different animals, as the bear, wild boar, fish-hawk in the act of devouring a fish, female deer suclding her fawn, ibex, Arc. This plate likewise contains the only inscription found on any of these monuments, consisting of four short lines of letters in the Anglo-Saxon or Irish character. Mr. Petrie considers them to be Pictish, but they have not hitherto been translated or even accurately deciphered ; we cannot adopt the proposed reading and translation given by Mr. Ramsay in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. iii., Part 3, which we do not see alluded to in the text of the present work. Two objects of domestic use are also repeatedly represented amongst these sculptures, namely, a circular mirror with a short handle, and a comb ; objects to which a certain degree of importance was attached in early ages, not only by the Greeks, and Etruscans, but by the Christianised Romans, and of which specimens have been repeatedly found in the catacombs of Rome.^ There is likewise another figure veiy often represented on the reverse of the stones, of which no satisfactory explanation has hitherto been given, nor is any attempted by the author of the present work. This figure consists of a reversed Z pattern, the ends foliated or like sceptres, whilst the diagonal .stroke is traversed by one or more straight lines, terminated in circles decorated within, the whole often surmounted by a serpent. Cordiner fancied this pattern to be a kind of monogi-am of the letters N A. 2, a notion which appears highly improbable. The ^ Montfaucon gives an anrient sepulchral comb, found upon some early Christian me- inscription, -w-ith the implements of the trade niori4ls, appears to be an instrument of of a smith, amongst whirli the comb and torture, mirror occur. Diarium Ital. p. 391. Tlic VOL. VI. N
