CHAPTER VII.

_On the Hill of Hissarlik, April 25th, 1872._

Smoking at work forbidden, and a mutiny suppressed--Progress of the great platform--Traces of sacrifices--Colossal blocks of stone belonging to great buildings--Funereal and other huge urns--Supposed traces of Assyrian art--Ancient undisturbed remains--Further discoveries of stone implements and owl-faced idols--Meaning of the epithet “γλαυκῶπις”--Parallel of Ἥρα βοῶπις, and expected discovery of ox-headed idols at Mycenæ--Vases of remarkable forms--Dangers and engineering expedients--Georgios Photidas--Extent of the Pergamus of Troy--Poisonous snakes, and the snake-weed--The whorls with the central sun, stars, the _suastika_, the _Sôma_, or Tree of Life, and sacrificial altars--The name of Mount Ida, probably brought from Bactria 107