Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/313

Tin-; TKM'PLE IN CYPRUS. 291 example is higher than the first by sixteen inches, but it is narrower at the base, and its handles are decorated only with a simple moulding. The upper lines of both vessels were originally on the same level ; the rock on which they stood was cut so as to make up for the inferior height of the one we have figured. The taller vase was so much broken that it was left where it was found, and its fragments still point out to travellers the site of what was once, no doubt, the chief temple of Amathus. The veight of the smaller of these two cisterns, that is, the one in Paris, is estimated at 14,000 kilogrammes, or rather less than fifteen tons. They must both have been shaped where they stand out of some block of limestone rising up above the plain. Even under such conditions the task would be no light one, but it is easy to understand why the effort was made. The hill on which the temple stood is destitute of springs, and as far as the eye can reach on every side there is no running w r ater ; and yet the purifications of the law had to be accomplished. 1 In the wet season these cisterns were filled with rain-w r ater, but during the rest of the year water had to be carried from the nearest spring or from the city reservoirs, on the backs of horses and donkeys. Large amphorse, hung on each side of the beast and stopped with a plug of grass or leaves, were used for the purpose, just as they are to-day. The mouth of these vessels was often placed so high th^t it could hardly be reached without steps, which might be either detached, and movable, or adherent to the basin, and cut out of the same block. The latter arrangement is shown in a small model o in the Louvre (Fig. 212), which is, no doubt, a votive offering presented by some faithful worshipper to whom the cost of a larger vessel was prohibitive. 2 Musccs to bring it away. Thanks to the care and skill of an officer named Magen, the difficult operation of its removal was accomplished with perfect success, and the vase, after a visit to Marseilles and Havre, whence it travelled by a flat barge on the Seine, was placed in the Louvre on July 13, 1866. See MAGEX, Le Vase cTAma- thonte, Relation de son Transport en France in the Recueil des Traraiix de la Socieie a" Agriculture, Sciences et Arts d Agen. 1 In the ceremonies attending a pilgrimage to Mecca the water of the well Zemzem plays no inconsiderable part. The pilgrims both drink it and wash in it ; a number of people gain their living by drawing the water and distributing it among them. 2 Attention has already been called to this little object by M. HEUZEV (Bulletin de la Societe des Antiquaires de France, 1871, pp. 45, 46). The Greeks called such a vessel as this