To the left of the engraving the artist has introduced, with a noble disregard of perspective,[II-12] what Bewick would have called a “bit of Nature.” In the foreground a figure is seen driving an ass loaded with a sack towards a water-mill; while by a steep path a figure, perhaps intended for the miller, is seen carrying a full sack from the back-door of the mill towards a cottage. To the right is seen a hermit--known by the bell over the entrance of his dwelling--holding a large lantern to direct St. Christopher as he crosses the stream. The two verses at the foot of the cut, Cristofori faciem die quacunque tueris, Illa nempe die morte mala non morieris, may be translated as follows: Each day that thou the likeness of St. Christopher shalt see, That day no frightful form of death shall make an end of thee. [Footnote II-12: As great a neglect of the rules of perspective may be seen in several of the cuts in the famed edition of Theurdanck, Nuremberg, 1517, which are supposed to have been designed by Hans Burgmair, and engraved by Hans Schaufflein.] They allude to a popular superstition, common at that period in all Catholic countries, which induced people to believe that the day on which they should see a figure or image of St. Christopher, they should not meet with a violent death, nor die without confession.[II-13] To this popular superstition Erasmus alludes in his “Praise of Folly;” and it is not unlikely, that to his faith in this article of belief, the squire, in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” wore “A Christofre on his brest, of silver shene.” [Footnote II-13: See Brand’s Popular Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 359-364.--Bohn’s edition.] The date “_Millesimo cccc^o xx^o tercio_”--1423--which is seen at the right-hand corner, at the foot of the impression, most undoubtedly designates the year in which the engraving was made.