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 merely assumption of dignity, or was it not rather intended to ward off any evil influence which might…