The other sides, though less complex, are not less graceful, nor less significant, than the two which I have introduced. In them, also, everything bears reference to the _Budhist_ ceremonial. Nor are the _mouldings_ and the _flowerings_, the _networks_, and other ornaments which figure upon them, the _least essential_ constituent of that fruitful code,[414]--while the personation of a _dog_,--an invariable accompaniment, as it is also amongst the sculptures at Persepolis, and other places in the East,--_would, in itself be sufficient to fix the appropriation of those crosses_, as that animal can have no possible relation to Christianity, whereas, by the Tuath-de-danaans, it was accounted _sacred_, and its maintenance enjoined by the ordinances of the state, as it is still in the Zend books, which remain after Zoroaster. To Clondalkin Tower, represented at p. 101, there belongs also a stone cross, and bearing its own history upon its _Tuath-de-danaan_ countenance. In Armagh is another. I cannot afford time to point out any more, but that at _Finglas_ is too remarkable to be quite neglected. Every body is acquainted with the legendary tale of _St. Patrick having banished all venomous reptiles from this_ island. Now, I am very willing, as has been shown, to give this apostle all the credit which he deserves; but I am a chronicler of _truth_, and from me he shall have no romances. Solinus, who flourished A.D. 190, that is, above two centuries before St. Patrick was born, has noticed the phenomenon of there being no vipers here. Isidore has repeated it in the seventh century; as has Bede in the eighth; and, in the ninth, Donatus, the famous bishop of Fesula. This exemption, therefore, cannot be attributable to St. Patrick, whose honour would be better consulted by his religious admirers in confining themselves to _facts_, which are numerous enough, than in shocking credibility by their _pious frauds_. As to the _local_ phenomenon, to which you perceive _he_ can have no pretensions, I cannot resist bestowing upon it a passing observation. Bede, I think, has gone so far as to say that not only are there no snakes to be found in Ireland, but that they would not live, if imported: nay, that, when brought within sight of the shore, they expire! I should like to see this ascertained; if the fact be such, then the question is solved, the air or the soil is the cause.