Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/63

42 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. narrow terraces rising one above the other from the slender strip left by the rocks on the shore, up to the proximity of the summits. One by one the boulders were dislodged, and the stones thus collected used in the construction of walls in talus whose function was to support these narrow belts of earth. Around the foot of every olive a basin or ditch was dug, kept clean, and re-dug several times during the year ; when the heavens were unusually forgetful in filling the basin, the dearth was made good by water brought to it, sometimes from afar, from cisterns — which preserved the priceless liquid until late in summer — placed at stated intervals, or from rare sources gushing out of some fracture in the rock, between two plane trees. The number and complication of the appliances, the untiring efforts needed in tree-culture, are easily realized by any one who has watched the peasants at work, whether on the Illyrian and Dalmatian coasts, or the shores of Liguria and Provence. But how soon the accumulated labours of past ages in tree-culture would perish^ were they not constantly renewed by the generation which has received them, fully detailed and as an inheritance, can only be understood by a somewhat lengthy sojourn in lands where this kind of culture is practised. When at Vitylos I became the guest of the Mavromichalis, the descendants of the ancient beys of Maina ; the long spring rains, which that year had been specially copious and destructive, had just come to an end. With the downward pressure of the waters, more than one sustaining wall had given in, carrying in its fall the earth which it supported. Of course what they precipitated into the sea was irretrievably lost ; but many a point at the edge of the rock, or boulders and coarse gravel heaped up high at the bottom of the ravine, had kept the earth in place and prevented its fall. When I arrived, all the hands on the estate were out and busy : the men in running up the talus afresh, the women and children toiling up the mountain, in the already burning sun, laden with dorsers full of earth, which they strove to put back in the field whence it had been removed. We may boldly assert that every shovelful of soil found on these terraces has thus travelled many times to and fro over these declivities in the course of ages. Apart from this yearly and general repair which the havoc wrought by wintry weather makes necessary, partial devastations have to be made good after every