_Sitting cross-legged._--In an alliterative poem on Fortune (_Reliquiæ
Antiquæ_, ii. p. 9.), written early in the fifteenth century, are the
following lines:--
"Sitte, I say, and sethe on a semeli sete,
Rygth on the rounde, on the rennyng ryng;
_Caste kne over kne, as a kynge kete_,
Comely clothed in a cope, crouned as a kyng."
The third line seems to illustrate those early illuminations in which kings
and great personages are represented as sitting cross-legged. There are
numerous examples of the A.-S. period. Was it {408} merely assumption of
dignity, or was it not rather intended to ward off any evil influence which
might affect the king whilst sitting, in his state? That this was a
consideration of weight we learn from the passage in Bede, in which
Ethelbert is described as receiving Augustine in the open air:
"Post dies ergo venit ad insulam rex, et residens sub divo jussit
Augustinum cum sociis ad suum ibidem adveire colloquium; caverat enim
ne in aliquam domum ad se introirent, vetere usus augurio, ne
superventu suo, si quid maleficæ artis habuissent, eum superando
deciperent."--_Hist. Eccles._, l. i. c. 25.
It was cross-legged that Lucina was sitting before the floor of Alemena
when she was deceived by Galanthes. In Devonshire there is still a saying
which recommends "sitting cross-legged to help persons on a journey;" and
it is employed as a charm by schoolboys in order to avert punishment.
(Ellis's _Brand_, iii. 258.) Were not the cross-legged effigies, formerly
considered to be those of Crusaders, so arranged with an idea of the
mysterious virtue of the position?