One well-preserved
figure is that of a girl with very large eyes, lips of brilliant
red, and curling black hair. Her high-bodied dress is looped up
at the shoulder with a bunch of blue, with red and black stripes,
and fringed ends. A border of the same robe, adorned with smaller
loops, crosses the bosom, and between its blue and red bands the
white tint of the skin displays itself, showing that the material
of the robe was diaphanous. Relief work in stucco was represented
by fragments of a life-sized figure, since pieced together by M.
Gillieron, which must have been that of some Minoan King. The head
wears a fleur-de-lys crown and peacock plumes, and round the neck
of the finely modelled torso there runs a collar of fleur-de-lys
ornament.
Again the connection of Knossos with Egypt was evidenced, and this
time in most interesting fashion. Near the wall of a bathroom which
was unearthed by the north-west side of the North Portico, there was
found the lid of an Egyptian alabastron, bearing the cartouche of
a King, which reads, 'Neter nefer S'user-en-Ra, sa Ra Khyan.' These
are the names of one of the most famous Kings of the enigmatical
Hyksos race--Khyan--'the Embracer of the Lands,' as he called himself,
one of whose memorials, in the shape of a lion figure, carved in
granite, and bearing his cartouche upon its breast, was found as
far east as Baghdad, and is now in the British Museum.
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