The evil eye. An account of this ancient and wide spread superstition

IX THE DEXTERA DEI 295
There are very interesting examples of this
special attitude, attributed not only to all the
Persons of the Holy Trinity separately, but in two
cases Miss Twining ''*^^
(in Plates xxxiv. xxxv.) re-
presents the Trinity by one single, seated figure, who.
Fig. 139.
in both plates, is lifting the right hand in the position
we are now discussing. There are many other examples
of this attitude attributed to the Almighty
Father, where the hand alone, or Dextera Dei, in
this position is shown coming down from the clouds.
Fig. 139, from the Norman tympanum at Hover-
ingham, Notts, ^"^^ shows this Almighty hand reach-
ing down to St. Michael fighting with the dragon. ^"^^
last century, has the Dextera Dei in the attitude we are describing. Moreover,
it contains the Gnostic pagan symbols of the sun and moon, and on
that account we can but consider them as placed on the seal as a protective
amulet, like those so frequently seen on other seals and coins.
'^'^ Symbols of Early and Media'val Christian Art, 1852. Fig. 138 "is
from Plate xxxiv., the Benedictional of St. Ethelwold, a Saxon MS. of the
tenth century." The Trinity in Unity is the idea set forth in both examples
referred to.
^^'t
J. Romilly Allen, Clu-istian Symbolism, 1887, p. 163.
*65 In Miss Twining's book are many representations of the First Person
by the hand alone in several positions, especially on Plate ii., where it ap-
pears in the usage of the Eastern Church, from a Greek MS. of the tenth
century. On the same plate are seven examples of the hand posed as in