Norwich bulletin., 1916-10-24
Today and Wednesday AUDIT ORaUMI Thurs, Fiy Sat
of Pompeii and Herculaneum were

of Ponapeii and Herculaneum were laid bare.
 Clay tablets bearing inscriptions in linear form far more graceful than any produced by the Phoenicians were found by the tholssands; remarkable frescoes in brilliant colors depicting race Of men and women or rare phys ical beauty and high mental accom- p1ishments; pottery, bronzes, tools, and gaming tables that for perfection of workmanship, elaborate decoration, and artistic development have hardly been surpassed in the thirty five cen turtles which stretch between that day and this.
 "One of the most astonishing dis coveries made in the palace of Minos (the name should probably be applied to q lynasty, like the Pharaohs of Egypt, rather than to one king, as dress among the women. Indeed, the artists who executed the frescoes might have had modern Parissienes for their modals, judged by the deco lette gowns, the rouged cheeks, the faring hats, the high heels and the tightly corrected figures.
 "A romantic revocation of these ruins was a picture of the Cretan sport of bu1l-grappling, a pastime which was a forerunner of the tro- cadero com5ats of twentieth century Spain. According to conjectures of leading authorities, bull-grappling oc- cupied the same place in Cretan social life that the arenic games and gadia- torial battles did in Rome centuries later, with the exception that captive maidens as well as youths were train ed for the hazardous sport of the is- land kings and patricians. One fres- CO which retains it's original brilliant colors, shows two girls and boy en- gagged in the conflict. The boy has succeeded in seizing the horns of the .T7 ri17cr oJ Hoe somersault over the beasts back. The first girl has also completed the dar- ing evolution, but the artist shows the second girl at the moment when she is reaching out for the horns and the spectator is left in doubt as to whether she succeeds or Is impaled on the deadly poffits.
 "A sinister discovery in connection with this fresco was the location of the gloomy suhterranean cells in which the captured youths and maid ems were confined before the contests. Perhaps to these cells and these bull fights is to be traced the famous leg end of the despatch to King Minos of seven Athenian maidens and seven youths every ninth year. the human half-bull known as the Minotaur, the offspring of Minos' monstrous wife Pasiphae. It @s highly probable that the story of Theseus' slaughter of the Minotaur in the Labyrinth had an actual historical basis. Certainly, only with the aid of an outsider, such as the fabled Aridne, could captive have escaped from the dungeons in which the Minoan rulers confined the unfortunates condemned to furnish diversion for the court.
 Unlike Babylon. Nineveh, Assur, and many other cities of antiquity, Cretan culture was not a victim of decadence, but fell before some mys- terious cataclysm, the exact details of which may never be known. The only certainty about the fall of Knossos and of sister cities Of the island is that they were wiped out by an a1l- consuming con1agration. after the palaces had been systematically footed of all their gold. silver, bronze and other treasure. As to who tI~ invad- CTS were, or how they achieved their purpose even legend is silent, but the Rev. James Baikie, who chronicled the findings of Dr. J. A. Evans and other excavators, has given this vivid sup position picture:
 "'Of course there are no records and if there were we could not read them (no key having been discovered as yet to the Cretan writings) but it is easy to imagine the disastrous sea fight off the coast; the wreck of the once invincible Minoan fleet driven ashore in hopeless ruin in the shallow bay, like the Athenian peet at Syra- cuse; the swift march of the palace guards, and then the horrors of the sack, and the long column of flushed victors winding down to their ships laden with booty, and driving with them crowds of capture women. Sim liar scenes must have been enacted at Phaestos, and Hagia Triada, either by other forces of invaders or by the same host sweeping around the is- land.
 From this overwhelming disaster the Minoan Empire never recovered. The palace of Knossos was never re- occupied as a palace, at least on any thing like the scale of forrsler magni- fcence. The invaders possibly de- parted as quickly as they had come, or if. as seems more probable they estab- lished themselves as Q ruling caste among the subject Minoans, they chose for theoir dwellings other sites than those of the old palaces. The broken agments of the Minoan race crept back after the sack to the b1a ckened ruins of their holy and beautiful house, not to rebuild 1t, but to divide it's stately rooms and those of it's dependencies by rude walls into poor dwelling houses, where they lived on-a very different life from that of the golden days before the sack"
 Warning to Japan.
 The new Japanese Premier says he