Palestine

quite recently described (1904), belong to this age, and give representations of strange beasts, such as the rhinoceros, porcupine, ., with their names over them in Greek—Ep.| These works influenced European sculpture, and the influence is still hardly exhausted. (Compare the mystic figures on the S. gate of the Holy Sepulchre Cathedral at Jerusalem explained by De Vogiié, which were carved about 1130 A.c.) The beasts represented on Keltik, and Norse, sacred stones are followed by the designs on church walls in the middle ages when, says Mr Romilly Allen (Rhind Lectures, 1886) every good library had its Bestiary. In these the habits, powers, and “views” of beasts were described—by aid of Aristotle and Pliny—and even when Paul Belon travelled in the Levant (16th century), to describe the fauna, he adds flying serpents to his genuine descriptions. Stories J of beasts, like Asop’s fables or Pilpay’s (founded on the Jataka) were added, with religious morals attached, The bestial symbolism used by Christian Fathers, as well as by Jews and Gentiles, is well explained by Mr F. P. 312