ANCIENT ALTARS

Hokitika Guardian, 30 July 1929, Page 5

ANCIENT ALTARS

2,000-YEARS-OLD FIND IN SICILY.

ROME, June 17

On the site of the ancient Greek city of Agrigentum an Sicily areliaelogists have discovered a group of five. Greek altars believed to,date from the earliest days of tlie foundation of the city, or, about G008.C.. The altars are circular in shape and about 4ft. high, some being about 20ft. across. They are composed of three layers of wedge-shaped stones. Cavities in the 'centre of the altars are'filled with statuettes, vases, and odier votive offerings.

The archaelogists are puzzled by finding near the altars prehistoric implements such as flint axe-heads, dating from at least 1,500 years earlier. It is conjectured from this ; that the Greeks adopted the - religious practices of the older inhabitants of the region, even . using the implements for sacrifices fashioned by them. 1 ;

CULTIVATE CHARM. LONDON, June 16. “Cultivate something which is beginning to sound almost old-fashioned —feminine charm,” said Miss Iris Brooks, M.A., the new head mistress at the Malvern (Worcester) Girls’ College Speech Day yesterday. She continued : “Why-niust the modern girl he so cocksure, so ruthless, often so rude iu manner? She is honest, brave, keen, but she often spoils herself by a total lack of charm. “ Real charm, not an affectation of it, is much like courtesy. It is an affair of the heart. “Be sensitive to sweetness, to grnciousness, the saving grace of happy tolerance. Then you will find with- Heine, the poet, that ‘ Life is comically sweet.’ ” ■