Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/691

Rh statue of the Virgin reposing, attended by three other less modern statues representing a man and two saints, numerous chapels have been built at menhirs to receive the offerings of pilgrims visiting them.

The most remarkable of all the menhirs on which the Roman Catholic religion has placed its seal, and at the same time one of the least know of them, is that of Pleumeur-Bodou, department of Côtes-du-Nord—a handsome granite block, solidly planted in the ground, roughly rectangular, about twenty feet high, and topping in an obtuse point. It is rendered particularly interesting by the religious imagery that covers its southern face. The whole upper third of this face is occupied by quaint sculptures in relief, colored in red, yellow, white, and black, representing a complete series of the attributes of the passion of Jesus Christ. There are the purse, red, containing the thirty pieces of silver which Judas received for his treason, and eight of the pieces shown; the cup, yellow, which Jesus handed round to his apostles at the last supper; the sword, white with a yellow hilt, indicating the arms borne by the persons who came to arrest him; the lantern carried by Judas at the betrayal; the sword with which Peter cut off the ear of Malchus; the cock that crowed three times; the post at which Jesus was scourged, with the scourge and rods; the reed which the soldiers derisively put in Jesus' hand as a scepter; the vessel in which Pontius Pilate washed his hands before giving Jesus up to the mob; St. Veronica's handkerchief; the hammer and three of the nails with which Jesus was nailed to the cross; the dice which the soldiers cast for his robe, and the robe; Mary Magdalene praying; the sun and the moon, which were obscured; the sponge with which Jesus was given vinegar, and the lance that was thrust into his side; a skull and bones symbolizing the opening of the tombs when Jesus expired; the pincers and the ladder by the aid of which Joseph of Arimathea took him down from the cross; and the glove in which Nicodemus caught a few drops of Jesus' blood while burying him. Beneath these figures was depicted a large Christ fixed on a red cross, with a dark background standing for a cloth, five feet by eight. The