the grinning ex-votos which hung upon the walls, and the curious pictures with which they were accompanied.  Grotesque bas-reliefs adorned the circuit of the edifice, where the slanting light was reflected from the white and polished pavement-stones."[638] In length and breadth the chamber measured sixty feet by thirty; the thickness of the basement wall was three feet.[639] Midway between the side walls stood three rows of large square pedestals—­regularly spaced, and dividing the interior into four vistas or avenues, which some critics regard as bases for statues, and some as supports for the pillars which sustained the roof.[640] Two stone capitals of pillars were found within the area of the chamber; and it is conjectured that the entire disappearance of the shafts may be accounted for by their having been of wood,[641] the employment of wooden shafts with stone bases and capitals being common in Cyprus at the present time.[642] Against each of the four walls was a row of pedestals touching each other, which had certainly been bases for statues, since the statues were found lying, mostly broken, in front of them.  The figures varied greatly in size, some being colossal, others mere statuettes.  Most probably all were votive offerings, presented by those who imagined that they had been helped by the god of the temple to which the chamber belonged, as an indication of their gratitude.  The number of pedestals found along one of the walls was seventy-two,[643] and the original number must have been at least three times as great.

Another Cyprian temple, situated at Curium, not far from Paphos, contained a very remarkable crypt, which appears to have been used as a treasure-house.[644] It was entered by means of a flight of steps which conducted to a low and narrow passage cut in the rock, and giving access to a set of three similar semi-circular chambers, excavated side by side, and separated one from another by doors.  Beyond the third of these, and at right angles to it, was a fourth somewhat smaller chamber, which gave upon a second passage that it was found impossible to explore.[645] The three principal chambers were fourteen feet six inches in height, twenty-three feet long, and twenty-one feet broad.  The fourth was a little smaller,[646] and shaped somewhat irregularly.  All contained plate and jewels of extraordinary richness, and often of rare workmanship.  “The treasure found,” says M. Perrot, “surpassed all expectation, and even all hope.  Never had such a discovery been made of such a collection of precious articles, where the material was of the richest, and the specimens of different styles most curious.  There were many bracelets of massive gold, and among them two which weighed a pound apiece, and several others of a weight not much short of this.  Gold was met with in profusion under all manner of forms—­finger-rings, ear-rings, amulets, flasks, small bottles, hair-pins, heavy necklaces.  Silver was found in even greater