ornaments, varying so much in size and nearly always in form, may not be confounded one with another. The nimbus encircling the body will for the present be distinguished by the term aureole, and the propriety of this denomination will be justified hereafter. The aureole is of less universal application than the nimbus, or ornament of the head, properly so called; it is very rarely seen in Pagan Iconography, and in Christian art is restricted almost exclusively to the Divine persons, to the Virgin