The sides of the shaft are ornamented with figures and scroll-work, placed alternately in compartments, one above the other. Of the circle by which the arms and stem are connected, the external edges are enriched; and as an example, the compartment beneath the left arm is here engraved. The eastern side is also divided into compartments occupied by sculptures, which may refer to Scripture history. [Illustration: Cross of Muiredach, sometimes called the Smaller Cross, Monasterboice.] [Illustration: Portion of the Sculpture on the Cross of Muiredach.] The smaller cross is the finest example of this class of Celtic sculpture now remaining. The figures and ornaments with which its various sides are enriched, appear to have been executed with an unusual degree of care and of artistic skill. It has suffered but little from the effects of time. The sacrilegious hands which attempted the ruin of the others appear to have spared this; and it stands almost as perfect as when, nearly a thousand years ago, this unrivalled work left the sculptor’s hands. An inscription in Irish upon the lower part of the west face of the shaft desires ‘A prayer for Muiredach, by whom was made this cross’; but as Petrie, by whom the inscription has been published, remarks, there were two of the name mentioned in Irish ‘Annals’ as having been connected with Monasterboice--one an abbot, who died in the year 844, and the other in the year 924--‘so that it must be a matter of some uncertainty to which of these the erection of the cross should be ascribed.’ There is reason, however, to assign it to the latter, ‘as he was a man of greater distinction, and probably wealth, than the former, and therefore more likely to have been the erector of the crosses.’ Its total height is exactly 15 feet, and it is 6 feet in breadth at the arms. The shaft, which at the base measures in breadth 2½ feet, and in thickness 1 foot 9 inches, diminishes slightly in its ascent, and is divided upon its various sides by twisted bands into compartments, each of which contains either sculptured figures or tracery of very intricate design, or animals, probably symbolical.