or death depended upon an instant, in which a slip of the
foot, a misjudgment of distance, or a wavering of hand or eye meant
horrible destruction, we may be sure that the tragedies of the
Minoan bull-ring were many and terrible, and that the fair dames
of the Knossian Palace, modern in costume and appearance as they
seem to us, were as habituated to scenes of cruel bloodshed as
any Roman lady who watched the sports of the Colosseum, and saw
gladiators hack one another to pieces for her pleasure.

That the sport of the bull-ring, and particularly this exciting
and dangerous game of bull-grappling, or [Greek: taurokathapsia],
was an established and habitual form of Minoan sport is proved by
the multitude of representations of it which have survived. The
charging bull of Tiryns, the first to be discovered, was a mystery
so long as it stood alone; but it is only one of a succession of
such pictures--painted upon walls, engraved upon gems, and stamped
on seal impressions--which show that the Cretans and Mycenaeans
were as fond of their bull-fights as a modern Spaniard of his.

Where did they get the toreadors, male and female, whose lives
were to be devoted to such a terrible sport--a sport practically
bound to end fatally sooner or later? We may be fairly sure, at
all events, that bull-grappling was not taken up voluntarily even
by the male, and still less by the female, toreadors; and one of
the discoveries made in the excavations of 1901, and followed up
later, gave its own suggestion of an explanation. Not very far from
the North Entrance of the palace, beneath the room where, the year
before, had been found the fresco of the Little Boy Blue gathering
crocuses--an innocent figure to cover so grim a revelation--there
came to light the walls of two deep pits, going right down, nearly
25 feet, to the virgin soil. The pits were lined with stone-work
faced with smooth cement, and it seems most probable that these
were the dungeons of the palace, in which we may imagine that the
miserable captives brought back by the great King's fleet from its
voyages of conquest and plunder, and the human tribute paid by the
conquered states, dragged out their existence until the time came
for them either to be trained for the cruel sport to which they
were devoted, or actually to take their places in the bull-ring.
If it be so, then the dungeons of Minos would keep their captives
securely enough; escape from the deep pits, with their smo