Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/491

Rh if found in Ireland. The interlacing scrolls which occupy its head

are one of the most usual as well as one of the most elegant modes of decoration employed in the province, and are applied with a variety and complexity nowhere else found n0 where else found in stone though, they may be equalled in some works illustrated by the pen.

Besides, however, its beauty in an artistic point of view, this basket pattern, as it is sometimes called, is still more so as

an ethnographic indication which, when properly investigated, may lead to the most important conclusions. The three following wood-cuts, Nos. 932, 933, and 934, taken from churches at a now deserted village called Ish Khan, will serve to explain its more usual forms; but it occurs almost everywhere in the Armenian architectural province, and

with as infinite a variety of details as are to be found with its employment in Irish manuscripts.