who imagined that they had been helped by the god of the temple to which
the chamber belonged, as an indication of their gratitude. The number
of pedestals found along one of the walls was seventy-two,[643] and the
original number must have been at least three times as great.
Another Cyprian temple, situated at Curium, not far from Paphos,
contained a very remarkable crypt, which appears to have been used as a
treasure-house.[644] It was entered by means of a flight of steps which
conducted to a low and narrow passage cut in the rock, and giving access
to a set of three similar semi-circular chambers, excavated side by
side, and separated one from another by doors. Beyond the third of
these, and at right angles to it, was a fourth somewhat smaller chamber,
which gave upon a second passage that it was found impossible to
explore.[645] The three principal chambers were fourteen feet six inches
in height, twenty-three feet long, and twenty-one feet broad. The
fourth was a little smaller,[646] and shaped somewhat irregularly. All
contained plate and jewels of extraordinary richness, and often of
rare workmanship. “The treasure found,” says M. Perrot, “surpassed all
expectation, and even all hope. Never had such a discovery been made of
such a collection of precious articles, where the material was of the
richest, and the specimens of different styles most curious. There were
many bracelets of massive gold, and among them two which weighed a pound
apiece, and several others of a weight not much short of this. Gold
was met with in profusion under all manner of forms--finger-rings,
ear-rings, amulets, flasks, small bottles, hair-pins, heavy necklaces.
Silver was found in even greater abundance, both in ornaments and in
vessels; besides which there were articles in electrum, which is
an amalgam of silver with gold. Among the stones met with were
rock-crystals, carnelians, onyxes, agates, and other hard stones of
every variety; and further there were paste jewels, cylinders in soft
stone, statuettes in burnt clay, earthen vases, and also many objects
in bronze, as lamps, tripods, candelabra, chairs, vases, arms, &c. &c. A
certain amount of order reigned in the repository. The precious objects
in gold were collected together principally in the first chamber. The
second contained the silver vessels, which were arranged along a sort
of shelf cut in the rock, at the height of about eight inches above the
floor. Unfortunately the oxydation of these vessels had proceeded to
such lengths, that only a very small number could be extracted from
the mass, which for the most part crumbled into dust at the touch of
a finger. The third chamber held lamps and fibulæ in bronze, vases in
alabaster, and, above all, the groups and vessels modelled in clay;
while the fourth was the repository of the utensils in bronze, and of
a certain number which were either in copper or in iron. In the further
passage, which was not completely explored, there were nevertheless
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