ling to the conquerors
in comparison with the worth of the metal.

But the artists of the time worked not only in the precious metals,
but also in stone, trying to reproduce there the forms with which
they had decorated the vessels wrought in the costlier medium.
Probably, when the steatite was worked to its finished shape, it was
covered with a thin coating of gold-leaf, at least this suggestion,
originally made by Evans, has been confirmed in one instance, where
part of the gold-leaf was found still adhering to a vase discovered
at Palaikastro by Mr. Currelly. In the case of the Hagia Triada
vases the gold-coated steatite had no charms for the plunderer,
who merely stripped off the gold-leaf and left its foundation to
testify to us of the skill of these ancient craftsmen. The largest
of the three stands 18 inches in height. It is divided by horizontal
bands into four zones. Three of these show boxers in all attitudes
of the prize-ring--striking, guarding, falling; while the second
zone from the top exhibits one of the bull-grappling scenes so
common in Minoan art, with two charging bulls, one of them tossing
on his horns a gymnast who appears to have missed his leap and
paid the penalty. The figures are admirably modelled and true to
nature, save for the convention of the exaggeratedly slender Minoan
waist, which seems to create an impression of unusual height and
length of limb. The second vase (Plate XXVII.) is much smaller, and
represents a procession which has been variously interpreted as a
band of soldiers or marines returning in triumph from a victory, or
as a body of harvesters marching in some sort of harvest thanksgiving
festival. This interpretation seems, on the whole, the more probable
of the two. In the middle of the procession is a figure, interesting
from the fact that he is so different from his companions. He has
not the usual pinched-in waist of the Cretans, but is quite normally
developed, and he bears in his hand the _sistrum_, or metal rattle,
which was one of the regular sacred musical instruments of the
Egyptians. In all probability he is meant to represent an Egyptian
priest, though what he is doing in a Cretan festival it is hard to
tell. The three figures, possibly of women, who are following him,
have their mouths wide open, and are evidently singing lustily.
One of the figures, that of an elderly man, who appears to be the
chief of the party, is clad in a curious, copelike garment, which