st:--Above a
complicated base there is up the middle of each jamb a large hollow, in
which are two niches one above the other, with canopies and bases of the
richest late Gothic; on either side of this hollow are tall thin shafts
entirely carved with minute diaper, two on the inner and one on the
outer side. Next towards the chapel is another slender shaft, bearing
two small statues one above the other, and outside it slender Gothic
pinnacles and tabernacle work rise up to the capital. Up the outer side
of the jambs are carved sharp pointed leaves, like great acanthus whose
stalk bears many large exquisitely carved crockets. On the other side of
the central hollow the diapered shaft is separated from the tiers of
tiny pinnacles which form the inner angle of the jamb by a broad band of
carving, which for beauty of design and for delicacy of carving can
scarcely be anywhere surpassed. On the Pateo side the carving is even
more wonderful.[121] There are seven shafts in all on each side, some
diapered, some covered with spirals of leaves, one with panelling and
one with exquisite foliage carved as minutely as on a piece of ivory.

Between each shaft are narrow mouldings, and between the outer five four
bands of ivy, not as rich or as elaborately undercut as on the chapel
side, but still beautiful, and interesting as the ivy forms many double
circles, two hundred and four in all, in each of which are written the
words 'Tayas Erey' or 'Taya Serey,' Dom Manoel's motto. For years this
was a great puzzle. In the seventeenth century the writer of the history
of the Dominican Order in Portugal, Frei Luis de Souza, boldly said they
were Greek, and in this opinion he was supported by 'persons of great
judgment, for "Tanyas" is the accusative of a Greek word "Tanya," which
is the same as region, and "erey" is the imperative of the verb "ereo",
which signifies to seek, inquire, investigate, so that the meaning is,
addressed to Dom Manoel, seek for new regions, new climes.' Of course
whatever the meaning may be it is not Greek, indeed at that time in
Portugal there was hardly any one who could speak Greek, and Senhora de
Vasconcellos--than whom no one has done more for the collecting of
inscriptions in Portugal--has come to the very probable conclusion that
the words are Portuguese. She holds that 'Tayas erey' or 'Taya serey'
should be read 'Tanaz serey,' 'I shall be tenacious'--for Tanaz is old
Portuguese for Tenaz--and that the Y is n