In the west corridor, which is four yards wide and sixty-six yards long, there are still standing some of the huge stone vases, “big enough,” as Sir Arthur Evans has said, “to hide the Forty Thieves.” They were used for the storage of grain, oil, wine, dried fruits, and the like. Opening on this corridor from the west there is a series of magazines and small chambers which were also used for storage purposes; while under the floors, both of the magazines and of the corridor, were strong cists, some of them lined with lead, which would perhaps contain the State treasures. The entrance which leads from the west court or market-place, and which is conveniently near the commissariat quarters, would be used by tradesmen. Speaking of the outer wall of the palace which borders on the west court, the Haweses (_Crete the Forerunner of Greece_, p. 66) remark: “This has a projecting base, whereon the peasants and humbler merchants could sit dozing, with one eye upon their merchandise and pack animals. During the long morning hours when traffic was busiest, this seat was always in the shade--a pleasant refuge from the sun’s rays that beat so fiercely on the open court.” The low narrow ledge would not, however, have been particularly comfortable to sit on. In a narrow corridor to the west of the south main entrance was found the fresco painting of the Cupbearer, an astonishing work of art. It portrays a Minoan youth, stiff with dignity, carrying a gold and silver vase before him. It did not originally stand in the corridor in which it was found and to which it has given its name, but on the west wall of the south entrance. It fell into the corridor when the connecting wall broke down. There is a reproduction of the Cupbearer on the cover of Dr. Burrows’s _The Discoveries in Crete_, which lacks, of course, the brilliant colours of the original. [Illustration: CUPBEARER From _The Discoveries in Crete_. By R. M. Burrows (John Murray) [_To face page 39_]