The most remarkable instances of the decorative use of the complete figures of men in the illuminated MSS. are to be found in the Book of Kells. The figures are generally arranged in pairs facing each other, in groups of three triskele fashion, and in nearly all cases the attitudes are extremely uncomfortable with the knees drawn up close against the stomach. The limbs of the different figures are crossed over and interlaced, as in zoömorphic ornament, and the hands are shown grasping either the limbs, hair, or beard of one of the other figures. Sometimes the human figures are combined with figures of birds or beasts. We have already referred to the incomplete frames of the initial pages of the Gospels with zoömorphic terminations. In the ___ “Nativitas XPI” initial page in the Book of Kells the incomplete frame terminates in a human head at one end and two legs at the other. Another initial page in the same MS.—that of St. Mark’s Gospel—has a zoömorphic frame, but the beast’s head is holding a man between its jaws, whilst the man is tugging at the beast’s tongue with his hand. Groups of four human figures arranged swastika fashion, interlaced and each grasping the limbs, wrists, hair, or beard of one of the other figures, occur on crosses in Ireland at Kilkispeen, Co. Kilkenny; Monasterboice, Co. Louth; and Kells, Co. Meath; and in Scotland on a recumbent monument at Meigle, Perthshire. A human figure interlaced with a bird occurs in two instances on sculptured stones in Scotland, namely, at Monifieth, Forfarshire (now in the Edinburgh Museum of Antiquities); and at Meigle, Perthshire. FOLIAGE Leaf and plant motive decoration is entirely foreign to the spirit of purely Celtic Christian art, and whenever it occurs it is generally to be traced to Northumbrian influence. The Book of Kells and the Stockholm Gospels are the only Hiberno-Saxon illuminated MSS. in which any trace of foliage can be detected. There are panels of foliage on the Irish crosses at Kells, Co. Meath; Monasterboice, Co. Louth; and Clonmacnois, King’s Co. In Wales there is an instance of foliage on the crosses at Penally, Pembrokeshire. In Scotland the only sculptured monuments with foliage upon them (excluding, of course, those in the Northumbrian districts of the south) are the erect cross-slabs at Hilton of Cadboll and Tarbet, Ross-shire (both now at Invergordon Castle); St. Vigeans, Forfarshire; and Crieff, Perthshire; on crosses at Camuston, Forfarshire; Dupplin, Perthshire; and on a cross-shaft at St. Andrews, Fifeshire. The foliage may in all cases be traced back to the Classical vine, the well-known symbol of Christ. It is often much degraded by successive copying, and although the forms of the leaves are often altered beyond recognition the bunches of grapes can always be made out. SYMBOLICAL FIGURE-SUBJECTS