Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/357

 me far from clear, for reasons which will be discussed in the remainder of this chapter.

The view of sacrifice which I am about to propound, and which would modify chiefly our conception of so-called piacular sacrifice in antiquity, was suggested to me by a story which I had from the lips of an aged peasant of the village of Goniá (the 'Corner') in the island of Santorini. In talking to me of the wonders of his native island he mentioned among other things a large hall with columns round it which had long since been buried—presumably by volcanic eruption. This hall was of magnificent proportions, 'as fine,' to use the old man's own description, 'as the piazza of Syra or even of Athens.' It was situated between Kamári, an old rock-cut shelter in the shape of an exedra at the foot of the northern descent from the one mountain of the island ([Greek: meso bouni]), and a chapel of St George in the strip of plain that forms the island's east coast. So far my informant's veracity is beyond dispute; for in an account of the island written by a resident Jesuit in the middle of the seventeenth century I afterwards discovered the following corroboration. 'At the foot of this mountain are seen the ruins of a fine ancient town; the huge massive stones of which the walls were built are a marvel to behold; it must have taken some stout arms and portentous hands to handle them Among these ruins have been found some fine marble columns perfectly complete, and some rich tombs; and among others there are four which would bear comparison in point of beauty with those of our kings, if they were not damaged; several marble statues in Roman style lie overturned upon the ground. On the pedestal of the statue of Trajan there is still to be read at the present day a very fine Greek panegyric of that powerful Emperor, as also on that of the statue of Marcus Antoninus.' Thus much as guarantee of the old man's bona fides, which even excavation on the spot, however desirable from an archaeological standpoint, could not more clearly establish than the French writer's corroborative testimony; now for the story associated by the aged narrator with this wonderful buried hall.; but the fact that there is only this one mountain in the island and that it still has a chapel of St Stephen on it places the identification beyond all doubt.]