Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/389

Rh surface with a sharp instrument. These resemble the figures on some Etruscan vases that recall the Greek art of the fifth century, though in the taste shown in the whole work there is a decidedly un-Hellenic element.

The last I have to mention, and certainly the oldest funeral masks known in Europe, are the six gold masks exhumed by Schliemann at Mycenæ. In the third grave within the stone circle in the citadel he found a child's mask of very thin gold leaf. It is much damaged. The places for the eyes are cut out and it terminates below the nose. The body of the child seems to have been burnt, and the mask was found with the bodies of three women whose remains had also been partially incinerated. In the fourth grave, in which three male and two female bodies were found, a gold mask lay on the face of each of the three male corpses. The first represents a large, oval, youthful face with a high, long, Hellenic nose and a small mouth with thin lips. The eyes are closed; the eyelashes and eyebrows are well marked by short strokes. The second shows a round face with full cheeks and small forehead. The mouth is small, but the lips thick. The eyes are shut, the slit of the eyes sloping down from the inner angle of the eye. Eyelashes and eyebrows are both well marked, and the latter meet over a straight, narrow nose. The ears are rudely indicated. The third mask exhibits a round, beardless face with a high rather pointed forehead. The eyes are bulging, nearly round in shape, and represent the eyes open. Eyelashes and eyebrows are not shown. The mouth is very large with thin, compressed lips, while the ears are placed a great deal too high. The fifth grave contained three bodies, two of which were provided with masks. The first is much compressed. It represents a nearly circular, beardless face with a high, wide forehead, short nose, small mouth, and narrow lips. The ears are in their proper position. The eyes are