ELEUSIS. 621 
persuaded to join in the labour. The people had 
assembled, and stood around the Statue; but no 
one among them ventured to begin the work. 
They believed that the arm of any person would 
fall off who should dare to touch the marble, or 
to disturb its position. Upon festival-days they 
had been accustomed to place before it a burn- 
ing lamp. Presently, however, the Priest of 
Eleusis, partly induced by entreaty, and partly 
terrified by the menaces of the Tchohadar, put 
on his canonical vestments, as for a ceremony 
of high mass, and, descending into the hollow 
where the Statue remained upright, after the 
rubbish around it had been taken away, gave 
the first blow with a pickaxe for the removal of 
the soil, that the people might be convinced no 
calamity would befal the labourers. The work 
then went on briskly enough : already the 
immense mass of marble began to incline from 
its perpendicular ; and the triangular frame was 
placed in such a situation, that, as the Statue 
fell, it came gradually upon the transverse 
beams. The rope was then cut, and fastened 
as traces; one half of it upon either side; and 
our machine, supported by wooden rollers, was 
easily made to move. In this manner, at mid- 
day, it had reached the brow of the hill above 
the old port; whence the descent towards the 
