a sinking on the blade.  The materials used are various.  The lions and the naked parts of the men are of gold, the shields and trunks of the men of electrum (a mixture of gold and silver), the hair of the men, the manes of the lions, and some other details of an unidentified dark substance; the background, to the edges of the inserted slip, was covered with a black enamel.  The scene is a lion-hunt.  Four men, one armed only with a bow, the others with lances and huge shields of two different forms, are attacking a lion.  A fifth hunter has fallen and lies under the lion’s fore-paws.  The beast has already been run through with a lance, the point of which is seen protruding from his haunch; but he still shows fight, while his two companions dash away at full speed.  The design is skilfully composed to fill the triangular space, and the attitudes of men and beasts are varied, expressive, and fairly truthful.  Another of these dagger-blades has a representation of panthers hunting ducks by the banks of a river in which what may be lotus plants are growing, The lotus would point toward Egypt as the ultimate source of the design.  Moreover, a dagger of similar technique has been found in Egypt in the tomb of a queen belonging to the end of the Seventeenth Dynasty.  On the other hand, the dress and the shields of the men engaged in the lion-hunt are identical with those on a number of other “Mycenaean” articles—­gems, statuettes, etc.—­which it is difficult to regard as all of foreign importation.  The probability, then, seems to be that while the technique of the dagger-blades was directly or indirectly derived from Egypt, the specimens found at Mycenae were of local manufacture.

The greatest triumph of the goldsmith’s art in the “Mycenaean” period does not come from Mycenae.  The two gold cups shown in Fig. 39 were found in 1888 in a bee-hive tomb at Vaphio in Laconia.  Each cup is double; that is to say, there is an outer cup, which has been hammered into shape from a single disc of gold and which is therefore without a joint, and an inner cup, similarly made, whose upper edge is bent over the outer cup so as to hold the two together.  The horizontal parts of the handles are attached by rivets, while the intervening vertical cylinders are soldered.  The designs in repousse work are evidently pendants to one another.  The first represents a hunt of wild bulls.  One bull, whose appearance indicates the highest pitch of fury, has dashed a would-be captor to earth and is now tossing another on his horns.  A second bull, entangled in a stout net, writhes and bellows in the vain effort to escape.  A third gallops at full speed from the scene of his comrade’s captivity.  The other design shows us four tame bulls.  The first submits with evident impatience to his master.  The next two stand quietly, with an almost comical effect of good nature and contentment.  The fourth advances slowly, browsing.  In each composition the ground is indicated, not only beneath