18 



DISCOVERY 



ill-luck is attached to that ; nor when biiildint,' a 

 house leave it rough-hewn, for a cawing crow might 

 settle on it and croak. 



The seasons in different parts of Greece vary, of 

 course, with latitude and altitude ; but normally there 

 is no rain from the end of March to October. The 

 spring is wonderful. The hot sun on the ground 

 soaked by the winter rains produces a mass of v/Ud 

 flowers, and the whole ground is carpeted with living 

 colour. 



•■ All fr.igrant with woodbine and peaceful content and the 

 leaves which the lime blossoms fling. 

 When the plane whispers love to the elm in the grove in 

 the beautiful season of spring." i 



Harvest, as we have seen, in most parts of Greece 

 is reaped in May or early June. \V'hen the grain has 

 been threshed and winnowed, there is nothing more 

 to be done in the fields until the autumn. Normally, 

 in the Eastern Mediterranean there are two rainy 

 spells, what the Bible calls the former and the latter 

 rains. The former rain, the light rains of autumn, 

 soften the ground. Now is the time for the farmer to 

 go up the mountain side and cut himself timber for a 

 plough. Hesiod advises making two, one being all 

 of a piece, in case of accidents. Now, too, is the time 

 to break up the fallow land ; for Greek antiquity did 

 not know rotation of crops, and land cropped one 

 year lay idle the next. The true ploughing season 

 came later in the period of the latter rains. December 

 was the best time, though there were those who 

 affected the late ploughing in March, which in 

 some years produced good results. The sower went 

 behind the plough, scattering the seed, and Hesiod 

 recommends a man to follow him with a mattock 

 to turn the soil over the seed before the birds get 

 at it.= 



The tools and methods of agriculture in Hesiod's 

 time were very much those in use to-day in modern 

 Greece. The plough is still little more than an iron- 

 shod stake which scratches the surface of the light 

 and stony soil. Deep ploughing would, in fact, be 

 impossible among its boulders. 



Corn was reaped with a sickle in May, and then 

 taken to the threshing-floor, a paved, circular space 

 set upon a high place which catches the summer breeze. 

 The grain is threshed cither by being trodden out by 

 beasts or ground out by a wooden sledge. This is an 

 oblong frame of wood studded on the bottom with 

 pieces of flint. The driver stands upon it to press 



' Aristophanes, Clouds, 1007 (trans. Rogers). 



• See British Museum Guide to the Exhibition illustrating 

 Greek and Roman Life. fig. 216, p. 208. A well-known black 

 figured vase by Nicosthcncs depicts ploughing and sowing (see 

 Companion to Greek Studies, p. 539). 



it down, and drives round and round over the 

 corn.' When this has Ijcen shaken out of the ears, it is 

 winnowed by throwing it with a long-handled shovel 

 into the air against the wind. The heavier grain then 

 falls in one heap, while the light chaff is carried further 

 down-wind into another. For this process a gentle, 

 steady breeze gives ideal conditions. "It is not 

 then the same wind which blows on the threshing-floor 

 as that which fills the sails." * 



' I photographed a Cretan sledge of this type in 1916. On 

 the other hand, similar flints for setting in a threshing sledge 

 were found in one of the prehistoric cities at Phylakopi, Melos. 

 This method has therefore a long continuous history. 



* A. W. Mair's translation of Hesiod (Clarendon Press, 1908) 

 may be recommended to those who are unable to read the 

 original. The British Museum Guide Books, which give the 

 reader certainly the most wonderful value in archa-ological 

 publication, containing as they do abundant illustrations, and 

 costing IS. or is. 6d., are too little known and used. For 

 students of Greek and Roman history the Guide to the Depart- 

 ment of Greek and Roman Antiquities and that above quoted are 

 invaluable. The Guide Books to the Stone. Iron, and Bronze 

 Age collections, and the excellent handbook to the Ethno- 

 graphical Section, can also be warmly recommended. 

 [To be continued) 



The Future of the Airship 

 in Commercial Transport 



By Major George Whale (late R.A.F.) 



A SOMEWH.VT pessimistic tone is prevailing, at present, 

 concerning the utility of aircraft for commercial 

 purposes. It is true that the development of aerial 

 transport companies has not been as rapid as aeronauti- 

 cal e.xperts hoped would be the case with the coming of 

 peace, but the reason for this is not far to seek. Europe, 

 if not the whole world, is suffering from a state border- 

 ing on bankrupt c\-, with the result that money for 

 scientific research and for the necessary experiments 

 incidental to civil aviation is only forthcoming to a 

 limited extent. 



Wlaen this is considered, it must be conceded that 

 considerable progress has been made in establishing 

 passenger and mail-carrxing services by aeroplane both 

 in this country and on the Continent, as well as in 

 America. 



Most unfortunately, the form of aircraft which 

 appears to hold out by far the greatest possibilities, 

 namely the airship, has been neglected entirely as far 

 as Great Britain is concerned. 



The successful croj-.sing of the Atlantic by the rigid 

 airship R34 proved that such a flight could be under- 

 taken without undue risk, and it might have been 



