hips. The little statue is about ten
inches high, and was found by Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos, the ancient
buried city the capital of Crete, in the Later Palace. Its date is
that of the close of the Minoan period, namely 1600 B.C. The two
figures in Plate IX are copied from frescoes representing acrobatic
women from the bull-ring, also from the Later Palace at Knossos, and
are a couple of centuries later in date. Religious ceremonies in
connection with the worship of the bull (whence the fable of the
minotaur) were practised in Knossos, and possibly there was a kind of
baiting of bulls and jumping over and away from the infuriated animals
such as may be seen at this day in the South of France and in
Portugal. Possibly the employment of girls in this sport gave rise to
the story of the maiden tribute from Athens to be sacrificed to the
Cretan minotaur. The drawings are remarkable for the pose--that of the
left-hand resembling an attitude assumed in boxing, whilst the
dress--a kind of maillot or "tights"--is gripped round the waist by a
firm ring (like a table-napkin ring), the compression of which is no
doubt exaggerated. This fresco and many others of extraordinary
interest, as well as much beautiful pottery and the whole of the plan
of the city, its public buildings, granaries, library and sewers at
several successive ages (the remains lying in layers one over the
other), were discovered and described by Sir Arthur Evans, who is
still at work on the wonderful history and art of these prehistoric
Cretans, from whom the Mycenaeans of the mainland of Greece were an
offshoot.

The point to which I chiefly desire to call attention is that this
Cretan people practised compression of the waist, and so have a
certain point of agreement with the prehistoric race of Lerida
represented in Figs. 24 and 25 and with Boldini's modern ladies. We
know from carvings and pottery that the men as well as the women of
the Mycenaean people wore a tightly-compressing girdle. The form of
figure thus produced--viz. relatively small, flexible waist, and large
hips with protruding buttocks--seems to be a less pronounced variety
of that of the small ivory figures of Aurignacian age (late
Palaeolithic) found in cave deposits of France and of that of the
Bushmen women. It seems as though the "ideal" female figure or that
admired and pictured by these races and by the modern Latin races is
the same in its main features, and differs altogether from