Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/184

148 winged female human figure and two Greek inscriptions upon it, and at p. 306 of the same number is a note by M. Clermont-Ganneau on the inscriptions. Herr von Schick has since forwarded a photograph of the object, and remarks that he was mistaken in supposing that the hands and feet terminate in fish tails, that the five fingers on one hand can be counted, and that in the other hand there is "something like a serpent." He thinks the object was painted red and gilded, and that the figure represents Psyche.



1. seen the figure described in Herr Baurath Schick's paper, Quarterly Statement, 1893, p. 296, para. 6, Fig. 14. It is doubtless that of a Psyche sculptured on a small block of marble. That the material is marble is clearly seen in places where the stone has been slightly chipped. The generally reddish colour of the surface of the stone may be due to former gilding. It is an undoubtedly genuine "antique," probably the work of a native artist whose unskilfulunskillful [sic] treatment has caused one hand only of the figure to appear webbed. The butterfly wings leave no doubt whatever as to the mythological person the sculpture is intended to represent. The ancients frequently carved either a Psyche (a butterfly winged maiden) or a butterfly alone on funeral monuments in order to personify the soul of the departed. I would call special attention to this statuette, as I believe it to be the original "antique" which suggested "ideas" to some modern forgers of antiquities. In writing this I have especially in my mind a slab of reddish limestone (in the possession of an American collector of note, still resident at Jerusalem) representing a nude female figure with pendant breasts and one knee bent, the foot of which ends like "a fish tail." This sculpture bears underneath in Greek the words "My Goddess," or "Goddess of my people" or some such legend. As it is now about three years since this caricature of ancient art was shown me I forget the exact wording of the inscription it bears.

2. The remains near the Austrian Hospice alluded to by Herr Von Schick in the Quarterly Statement for 1894, p. 20, para. 4, I believe to mark the site of the house occupied by the nuns of Bethany during times of war, and containing the chapel of St. John the Evangelist. The description of the remains as "Mohammedan" is vague, for the term "Mohammedan remains" is applicable to buildings erected between A.D. 637 and the present date. The vaults in the ruin I mention are undoubtedly mediæval, probably Crusading, and later Mohammedan work has been incorporated into the older building in several places. This is especially clear in the case of the Mihrab, which has been built in sideways, and somewhat askew to the old chapel wall. The very fact that a now ruined