MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
Egyptians and others, and in consequence gave freer 
play to their feeling for the beautiful. This is clearly 
shown by the pottery, the bronze objects, the jewelry, 
the carved ivory, and especially the painted wall frag- 
ments that have been dug up on the sites of their buried 
towns and palaces and temples. On all these we see nat- 
uralistic representations of men and women, of bulls and 
goats, of dolphins, flying-fish, and tentacled octopuses, 
of the lily and crocus, the tulip and the rose (Plate 84). 
There are also graceful spirals, which seem to have come 
to the Cretans from the north or perhaps from the east. 
In architecture they betrayed an almost equal genius. 
They learned in time to build houses of adobe brick several 
stories in height, with windows and doors, the latter 
equipped with regular locks. To their palace-temples, 
for they were both, monumental stairways and rows of 
stately columns gave dignity and even grandeur. Their 
systems of drainage remained unequaled in any land until 
within the past century. 
The chief divinity of the Cretans was the Great Mother, 
who ruled over birth and love and death. The serpent 
and the dove were among her emblems, and in her worship 
priestesses and women in general played a predominant 
part. Scarcely second to the cult of the Mother Goddess 
were those of the Bull and the Double Ax. In connection 
with these, huge bulls were baited by unarmed youths and 
maidens, and legends told among the Greeks long after- 
ward seem to hint darkly of human sacrifice—of enforced 
tribute from conquered peoples of boys and girls to be 
gored to death by the savage sacred bull. 
Among the Cretans we find strong contrasts in the 
matter of dress. The women’s costumes curiously re- 
sembled those of medieval Europe, with long skirts 
pleated and flounced, richly embroidered and gaily dyed 
(Plate 86). The men, on the other hand, wore only a kilt, 
as in the neighboring parts of Africa. Both sexes in cold 
or rainy weather wrapped themselves in long cloaks, and 
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