In the absence of abiding monuments the fact has too generally been lost sight of, that throughout what is now the civilized European area there must once have existed systems of picture-writing such as still survive among the more primitive races of mankind. To find such ‘pictographs’ in actual use—the term is used in its most comprehensive sense to cover carvings on rocks or other materials whether or not actually overlaid with colour—we must now go further afield. Traces of such may indeed be seen on the rude engravings of some megalithic monuments like that of Gavr Innis, on the rock carvings of Denmark, or the mysterious figures known as the Maraviglie wrought on a limestone cliff in the heart of the Maritime Alps, to which may be added others quite recently discovered in the same region.

In Lapland, where designs of this character ornamented the troll-drums of the magicians till within a recent period, survivals of some of the traditional forms may still be found to the present day, engraved on the bowls of their reindeer-horn spoons. Of actual rock-paintings perfectly analogous to those of Cherokees or Zulus, I have myself observed an example—consisting of animals and swastika-like figures painted probably by early Slavonic hands on the face of a rock over-hanging a sacred grotto in a fiord of the Bocche di Cattaro.

The inscription published below was discovered in June, 1893, built into a house in the small village of Pelen, which lies in the interior of the peninsula of Myndos, in the upper valley of a stream flowing southwards past Episkopi into the Gulf of Kos (Adm. Charts 1546, 1604); but which is not marked in any map hitherto. The stone is a block of the local grey limestone, and was much encrusted with whitewash; after a little cleaning, however, the reading became sufficiently clear. The inscription came from the ruins of a large church which stands about two miles east of Pelen, on the ridge between the valley of Pelen and that of Ghiöl to the east of it, at the point where the mountain road traverses the hills from Faréliah towards Budrum. The church is built upon the ruins of a Karian or Hellenic building, of large roughly squared stones, with the broad draft down the angles which is characteristic of the pre-Mausolean masonry of this neighbourhood. The site is much overgrown with thick shrubs, but enough can be made out to confirm the evidence of the inscription that this is the site of the temple of Apollo Telmisseus. We did not, however, find any other traces of inscriptions.

Letters Slight apices. Date about 200 B.C.; not earlier. Line 1: iota adscriptum possibly omitted in Line 21: for see I.B.M. 925 (Branchidae). In line 12 there is a space after indicating a stop, but Mr. Paton cannot find any trace of after

Telmissos is described by Polemo (apud Suidam s.v.) as a town in Caria at a distance of sixty stadia from Halicarnassos [which answers very nearly to the distance between Budrum and the site above Ghiöl (J. L. M.)]. It has been frequently confused with its namesake, an important city in the west of Lycia. But we may take it for granted now that it was the little Carian town that was so famous in ancient times for its augury. Cicero is quite explicit on the point (De Divin. i. 41): Telmessus in Caria est, qua in urbe excellit haruspicum disciplina; and again in ch. 42: Turn Caria tota, praecipueque Telmesses, quos ante dixi, quod agros uberrimos maximeque fertiles incolunt, in quibus multa propter fecunditatem fingi gignique possunt, in ostentis animadvertendis diligentes fuerunt.

I am privileged to publish here a few very interesting fragments of Acropolis vases, the paintings of which are executed wholly or partially on a white ground. Naturally the number of these fragments is comparatively small, but they are of greater interest than those of black-figured or red-figured technique, as enlarging the somewhat meagre list of extant specimens of this class. When I last had the opportunity of examining the collection, before it had been removed from the Acropolis and undergone the systematic sorting so ably performed by Drs. Wolters and Graef, and subsequently by Dr. P. Hartwig, there were portions of fourteen vases, the majority of which were kylikes, a few having the white ground on both sides of the vase but most of them showing a combination of a plain varnished or a red-figured exterior with interior scenes painted on a white ground, or even a white slip outside and of work within. Inasmuch as the whole collection has now been worked over, it is not worth while to enumerate the total, as it appeared some years ago. In the case of the most interesting vase, which now appears for the first time (Plate X.), I have reason to believe that all extant fragments are included in the Plate, several additional drawings having been executed by M. Gilliéron, whose work, it is needless to say, is characterized by its usual admirable fidelity.