As already mentioned, Schliemann, bringing all the knowledge he had gained in his amazing excavations at Troy, at Mycenæ and other places, to bear on the subject of the origin of the Mediterranean civilization, placed his finger on Knossos as the centre whence it sprang. His uncanny instinct was once more right. He wandered about the lonely places of Crete, still with faith in the Homer who led him to discover Troy, feeling sure that at Knossos he would find the fabled palace of King Minos, but death prevented him from making the biggest discovery of all. The work that the German excavator left undone was taken up by Sir Arthur Evans. Unfolding his tent on the barren site of Knossos, Sir Arthur Evans set his diggers to work. They dug diligently, scanning every spadeful of earth for traces of man. They excavated a yard of soil, 6 feet, 10 feet, wielding pick and shovel, carrying the debris away in baskets. They found many things, broken jars, decorated pottery, but most important of all were the clay tablets inscribed with the puzzling writing of the Minoans. [Illustration: _By courtesy of the British School at Athens_ A GENERAL VIEW OF THE RUINS OF THE PALACE OE KNOSSOS IN CRETE, WHERE SIR ARTHUR EVANS HAS DISCOVERED A NEW AND HIGHLY DEVELOPED CIVILIZATION, WITH A WRITING WHICH CANNOT YET BE READ] Still they went on, getting deeper and deeper, until the pick of a digger struck a paving stone. They shovelled the rubbish away and disclosed another stone, then another. At last Sir Arthur Evans had reached the stone pavement of a palace. Excavations were continued, and gradually the throne-room of the Palace of Knossos was bared once more to human eyes, after lying under the debris for countless generations. Here were the stone seats arranged round the walls for the councillors, here was the throne on which sat the king who laid tributary on all the lands about the Mediterranean, a stone throne, hollowed in the seat to give comfort, with a stone back carved in a series of six curves rising to a half-circle at the top, the solid block comprising the seat carved at the front to indicate legs. Here in this ancient palace he held audiences, sent his messengers forth in their galleys to claim tribute at Athens, issued his decrees. “Go,” he said, and they went. And when after feasting he desired amusement and relaxation, he would beckon his henchman. “Fetch me maidens to dance and sing,” he would say, and there would be the sound of twanging strings and the pitter-patter of little naked feet on the stone floor, feet with toes pink as rosebuds, lithe limbs, flowing draperies. And the king, feasting his eyes on the beauty of his dancers, would dream of the youths and maidens even then aboard his galleys on their way from Athens to Crete, the youths and maidens who were the yearly tribute.