Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/105

 84 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. more helpful, for when it came into being the worst or rudest stage had been left behind. If at this period industry and art exhibit as yet no great advance, the intelligence of the Hellenes is awakened and living enough to enable us to foresee that ultimate progress is a mere question of time. This progress was not alike everywhere; though apparent even where Phoenician vessels made but transient apparitions, — much after the fashion of sea-birds alighting awhile on their journey, but soon again on the wing, — it was particularly rapid and all-embracing on spots where the Canaanite, as at Nauplia, Corinth, Salamis, and many other tracts of the coast, kept open shops the whole year round ; where too artisans set up their workshops alongside of them. Notwithstanding the precautions which doubtless were taken to keep secret their trade- processes, it was impossible that some of them should not have oozed out during the fabrication of a number of objects on the spot. Besides, how is it possible to conceal from peering eyes peculiar movements of the fingers, of the shuttle, of the needle-point, and of the chisel at work, as must frequently have been the case in those temporary bazaars, open booths, and shanties ? All these coast-markets were but makeshifts, opened at a moment's notice, and hastily abandoned if information came to their owners that larger gains could be made on some other spot, or if haply they were threatened by turbulent neighbours. Nothing of the kind was to be apprehended in those localities where freebooters had settled with the intention of remaining. In some respects, these leaders call up to mind the famous Spanish adventurers who conquered Mexico and Peru for their country. It made no difference whether they had taken forcible possession of the soil or had been welcomed with timid and respectful deference by the natives ; it was clearly to their advantage to make their new subjects loyal and useful servants of the state, teaching them the arts of war and peace. Their follow- ing was small ; to fill up the gaps they could scarcely depend on recruits from home ; for the mother-country had much ado to remember all her children scattered to the four points of the com- pass. Moreover they had almost always come without women, and had intermarried with the daughters of the land ; through these marriages, races and interests were more intimately united, whilst the most energetic elements of the native population were amalga- mated with the peculiar qualities of the strangers. Accordingly