DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7477#0030
IN THE LIGHT OF CRETAN DISCOVERIES 23
grave dust was next given me, to be made up into a tri-
angular amulet and worn round the neck. An augury of
pebbles, which were shuffled about under the Dervish's
palms over a hollowed stone, having turned out propitious,
we now proceeded to the sacrifice. This took place outside
the sepulchral enclosure, where the Priest of the Stone
was presently ready with a young ram. My Albanian
guide cut its throat, and I was now instructed to dip my
right hand little finger in the blood and to touch my fore-
head with it.
The sacrifice completed, we made our way down again
to the shrine, while peals of thunder rolled through the
glen from the Black Mountain above. It was now necessary
to divest one's self of an article of clothing for the Dervish
to wrap round the sacred pillar, where it remained all
night. Due offerings of candles were made, which, as
evening drew on, were lit on the sunken hearth beside
the stone. I was given three barley corns to eat, and a
share in the slaughtered ram, of which the rest was taken
by the priest, was set apart for my supper in the adjoining
antechamber. Here beneath the same roof with the stone,
and within sight of it through the open doorway, I was
bidden to pass the night, so that the occult influences due
to its spiritual possession might shape my dreams as in
the days of the patriarchs.'
It is clear that some of the larger Minoan tombs were
at the same time shrines of the protecting Mother Goddess,
and the pillar within them may have been rather to supply
a material place of indwelling for the divinity than for the
spirit of the human subject interred within. A conspicuous
instance of this was the Tomb of the Double Axes near
Knossos, where at the head of the rock-cut grave of
the departed warrior was a regular altar slab on which
seem to have stood the full paraphernalia of the cult, in-
cluding the ritual Double Axes, while the baetylic form of
the Goddess was represented by a column cut in relief on
the adjoining rock wall.
grave dust was next given me, to be made up into a tri-
angular amulet and worn round the neck. An augury of
pebbles, which were shuffled about under the Dervish's
palms over a hollowed stone, having turned out propitious,
we now proceeded to the sacrifice. This took place outside
the sepulchral enclosure, where the Priest of the Stone
was presently ready with a young ram. My Albanian
guide cut its throat, and I was now instructed to dip my
right hand little finger in the blood and to touch my fore-
head with it.
The sacrifice completed, we made our way down again
to the shrine, while peals of thunder rolled through the
glen from the Black Mountain above. It was now necessary
to divest one's self of an article of clothing for the Dervish
to wrap round the sacred pillar, where it remained all
night. Due offerings of candles were made, which, as
evening drew on, were lit on the sunken hearth beside
the stone. I was given three barley corns to eat, and a
share in the slaughtered ram, of which the rest was taken
by the priest, was set apart for my supper in the adjoining
antechamber. Here beneath the same roof with the stone,
and within sight of it through the open doorway, I was
bidden to pass the night, so that the occult influences due
to its spiritual possession might shape my dreams as in
the days of the patriarchs.'
It is clear that some of the larger Minoan tombs were
at the same time shrines of the protecting Mother Goddess,
and the pillar within them may have been rather to supply
a material place of indwelling for the divinity than for the
spirit of the human subject interred within. A conspicuous
instance of this was the Tomb of the Double Axes near
Knossos, where at the head of the rock-cut grave of
the departed warrior was a regular altar slab on which
seem to have stood the full paraphernalia of the cult, in-
cluding the ritual Double Axes, while the baetylic form of
the Goddess was represented by a column cut in relief on
the adjoining rock wall.