Page:Textile fabrics; a descriptive catalogue of the collection of church-vestments, dresses, silk stuffs, needle-work and tapestries, forming that section of the Museum (IA textilefabricsde00soutrich).pdf/469



sleep, or takes it alive and does as he likes with it A beast of this description signifies Jesus Christ; one God he is and shall be, and was and will continue so; he placed himself in the virgin, and took flesh for man's sake: a virgin she is and will be, and will always remain. This animal in truth signifies God; know that the virgin signifies St. Marye; by her breast we understand similarly Holy Church; and then by the kiss it ought to signify that a man when he sleeps is in semblance of death; God slept as a man, who suffered death on the cross, and His destruction was our redemption, and His labour our repose," &c.—"Popular Treatises on Science written during the Middle Ages, &c, and edited for the Historical Society of Science by T. Wright," pp. 81, 82.

The figure of the countryman carrying off the hare is brought forward in illustration. As the rough coarse clown, prowling about the lands of his lord, wilily entraps the hare in his hidden snares, so does the devil, by allurements to sin, strive to catch the soul of man. These interesting symbolisms end the left-hand portion of the reredos. Going to the right, we find that part torn and injured in such a way that it is evidently shorn of its due portions, and much of the original so completely gone that we are unable to hazard a conjecture about the subject which was figured there.

8619.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, rose-coloured; pattern, peacocks, eagles, a small nondescript animal, and a lyre-shaped ornament, all in green, touched with white. Italian, late 14th century. 11 inches by 10-1/2 inches.

A curious design, in which the birds are boldly and freely drawn. Each horn of the lyre-shaped ornament ends, bending outwardly with what to herald's eyes seems to be two wings conjoined erect.

8620.

Piece of Silk and Gold Damask; ground, dark blue, in some places faded; pattern, a band charged with squares in gold, every alternate one inscribed with the same short Arabic word, lions in gold beneath a tree in light