One of the most common, and, if we may judge from the style of execution, one of the favourite subjects of mural and sarcophagal presentation in this biblical cycle, is the history of Jonah. It is repeated over and over again with a high degree of picturesqueness, and with greater variety of treatment than, perhaps, any other. It appears also on lamps, vases, medals, gilt glasses, and funeral slabs. 300 The story is generally represented in a series of four scenes: the storm, and the monster of the deep swallowing the prophet; his deliverance from its horrid jaws, and restoration to land; his reclining under the shadow of the gourd for refreshment and rest; and his gloom and anger when the gourd has withered away and he lies in his misery beneath the burning sun. Sometimes the four scenes occupy the four walls of the _cubiculum_, or the compartments of a vaulted ceiling; or only two may be exhibited, as in the engraving on the opposite page, from the cemetery of St. Priscilla, in which Jonah is portrayed as a child issuing from the mouth of the sea-monster, and afterward reclining under the booth. Sometimes the whole history is compressed into one crowded scene, as in the following example. (Fig. 81.) The character of the little bark is much like that seen in pagan frescoes. [Illustration: Fig. 81.--The History of Jonah.] [Illustration: Fig. 82.--Jonah, Moses, and Oranti.] 301 In some instances the “ship” is reduced to a mere boat, and the 302 “mariners” to a single individual, as in Fig. 83, from the cemetery of St. Priscilla. [Illustration: Fig. 83.--Jonah Swallowed by the “Great Fish.”] In the following sarcophagal example, (Fig. 84,) the somewhat startling anachronism of Noah receiving the dove from the prow of Jonah’s vessel appears in the background. The “sea” is here a narrow stream; and the “fish,” a monster with the head and paws of a quadruped, on one side of the boat is swallowing the disobedient 303 prophet, and on the other is casting him forth upon the rocky shores. Such solecisms are by no means uncommon in these groups. [Illustration: Fig. 84.--Noah and Jonah.] On another sarcophagus in the Lateran Museum the influence of pagan thought may be observed. The storm is personified by a triton blowing through a convoluted shell, and Iris, hovering with floating scarf above the vessel, indicates the calm which followed the casting out of the prophet.