extent made up for their simplicity in the matter
of dress. The Cup-Bearer wears a couple of thick bracelets on his
upper arm, and another, which bears an agate signet, on his wrist;
and such decorations seem to have been in common use. The King
whose figure in low relief has been reconstructed from fragments
found at Knossos, wears peacock plumes upon his head, while round
his neck he has a collar of fleur-de-lys, wrought, no doubt, in
precious metal.

The Minoan women are depicted with a perfectly white skin, which
contrasts strongly with the bronzed hue of the men. The deep coppery
tint of the men, and the dead white skin of the women is, of course,
to be accepted only as a convention, similar to that adopted by
Egyptian artists, meant to express a difference of complexion caused
by greater or less exposure to the weather; and we need not imagine
that there was so great a contrast between the colouring of men
and women in actual life as would appear from the paintings. If
the dress of the male portion of the populace was simple, that of
the female was the reverse. An elaborate and tight-fitting bodice,
cut excessively low at the neck, covered, or affected to cover,
the upper part of the body, which is so wasp-waisted as to suggest
universal tight-lacing. From the broad belt hung down bell-shaped
skirts, sometimes flounced throughout their whole length, sometimes
richly embroidered, as in the case of a votive skirt represented
in faience among the belongings of the Snake Goddess found in the
Temple Repositories. In some cases--_e.g._, that of the votaress
of the Snake Goddess--the skirt, below a small panier or apron, is
composed of different coloured materials combined in a chequer pattern
distantly resembling tartan. A fresco from Hagia Triada represents
a curious and elaborate form of dress, consisting apparently of
wide trousers of blue material dotted with red crosses on a light
ground, and most wonderfully frilled and vandyked. Diaphanous material
was sometimes used for part of the covering of the upper part of
the body, as in the case of some of the figures from the Knossos
frescoes. Hairdressing, as already noticed, was very elaborate, and
above the wonderful erections of curls and ringlets which crowned
their heads, the Minoan ladies, if one may judge from the Petsofa
figurines, wore hats of quite modern type, and fairly comparable
in size even with those of the present day. A seal from Mycenae,
representi