Francine,
Perhaps you've been peeking at my pictures ! Actually, your description
isn't exact, as they clerics have no hood - a skullcap or strange tonsure,
perhaps. But the remaining garment looks like a hospital gown, put on
backward and fully "flared out". The clerics are part of a capital and, it
appears, there were originally intended to be five of them - one on the
corner, two one either side. The stone mason perhaps got bored - or
over-excited - as the cleric on one end has relinquished his position to a
non-descript carved stone ball of sorts. Hard to explain. As I said, I'll
have to start checking the photos. One thing I have noticed about the few
remaining sheelas, however, is that they don't often occur in highly
decorated churchess....probably more a function of the earlier period in
which they were carved and anything else.
Pete Schermerhorn, in the glorious Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts
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