In December, 1909, I had the privilege of reading a paper before the Institute upon the symbolism of the crocodile, in which I made considerable use of the mediaeval bestiaries as a source of information. I endeavoured to show the correspondence between the illustrations in them and the details of ecclesiastical figure sculpture, with a view to identifying various animal forms in the latter, and to explain their meaning. I shall proceed on somewhat similar lines in the present paper with regard to the amphisbaena, which appears in the form of a dragon in the church sculptures, possessing the peculiar feature of a second head upon the end of its tail. There is a very large number of sculptured dragons in church architecture, and I am under the impression that they are generally regarded as representing the dragon, that is the devil or Satan in symbolic form. - [Author]

Language: English