Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/40

18 which the sacrilegious hand of Xerxes destroyed, with the other tutelary deities of Athens.5

The smaller fragments of sculpture and architecture found in the course of the excavations on the Acropolis have been carefully collected by M. Pittakys, and temporarily built up with mortar into low walls, of which they form the facing. This primitive way of arrangement has the great advantage of preventing the abstraction of portable objects, which is unfortunately an inveterate habit among travellers.

In the cisterns on the Acropolis are a number of fragments of the statues of the Parthenon, for a knowledge of the existence of which I was indebted to Comte De Laborde's beautiful work on the Parthenon.6

Among these remains are portions of the horses from the chariot of Athene in the western pediment, which was still intact when Morosini took Athens in 1687. After the siege he attempted to lower this matchless group, but unfortunately the tackle he employed gave way, and the sculptures were broken to pieces. There are also a number of arms and legs from the pedimental figures, and many fragments of the frieze.

Is is much to be regretted that the Greek Government does not provide a suitable place of shelter for the many precious sculptures which are lying about the Acropolis, exposed, not only to the weather, but to what is worse, the brutal violence of travellers, who would mutilate a fine work of art, merely for the sake of possessing an unmeaning relic. I saw