so afforded of a great delight in scenes
connected with the sea, and we have the flying-fish and the seal
with the seaman in his skiff defending himself against the attacks
of the sea-monster, to witness to the Minoan appreciation alike
of the curiosities and the dangers of the deep.

Fresco-painting also begins to leave survivals, and we have particularly
the fresco of the Blue Boy gathering white crocuses. At the beginning
of the period the old form of pictographic writing is still in
general use, but by the close of Middle Minoan III. the earlier
type of the linear script, Class A, has made its appearance and
is extensively used. The Middle Minoans of the Third period were
the fabricators of the huge knobbed and corded _pithoi_, or jars,
some of them with the curious 'trickle,' ornament, which is surely
decoration reduced to its last straits. The artist merely dabbed
quantities of brown glaze paint around the rims of his jars, and
allowed it to trickle down the sides at its own will. The result
is curious, but can scarcely be called beautiful (Plate IX. 2).
'Ab-nub's child, Sebek-user, deceased,' whose statuette was found
at Knossos, gives us a point of connection between the earlier
part of Middle Minoan III. and the Thirteenth Egyptian Dynasty,
while the alabastron of Khyan links the later portion of the period
with the Hyksos domination in Egypt. The King who built the great
tomb at Isopata, already described, must have reigned at Knossos
during this period.

_Late Minoan I_.--In this period we come into touch with a great
deal of the fine work of the Royal Villa at Hagia Triada, which
has been already described. A considerable portion of the area
of the palace at Knossos, dating from the preceding age, is now
covered up by new construction, and the second palace begins to
assume the form which was completed in the subsequent period. In
pottery the naturalistic style still persists, but the technique
begins to modify, and the white design on a dark ground occurs
less frequently than design in dark glaze paint on the natural
light ground of the clay. Ornament begins to partake increasingly
of a marine character; the octopus, the Triton shell, the nautilus,
and seaweed, appear as designs, and are executed in lifelike fashion,
which contrasts strongly with the later conventionalized method
of representing them. Indeed, Middle Minoan III. And Late Minoan
I. and II. show a distinct appreciation of and delight in all