MAZES AND LABYRINTHS
MAZES
AND LABYRINTHS
A GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THEIR HISTORY
AND DEVELOPMENTS
BY
W. H. MATTHEWS, B.Sc.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C. 4
NEW YORK, TORONTO
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND MADRAS
1922
All rights reserved
Made in Great Britain
To
ZETA
whose innocent prattlings on the
summer sands of Sussex
inspired its conception
this book
is most affectionately
dedicated
PREFACE
Advantages out of all proportion to the importance ofthe immediate aim in view are apt to accrue wheneveran honest endeavour is made to find an answer to one ofthose awkward questions which are constantly arisingfrom the natural working of a child's mind. It was anendeavour of this kind which formed the nucleus of theinquiries resulting in the following little essay.
It is true that the effort in this case has not led to completesuccess in so far as that word denotes the formulationof an exact answer to the original question, which,being one of a number evoked by parental experimentsin seaside sand-maze construction, was: "Father, whomade mazes first of all?" On the other hand, one hesitatesto apply so harsh a term as "failure" when bearingin mind the many delightful excursions, rural as well asliterary, which have been involved and the alluringvistas of possible future research that have been openedup from time to time in the course of such excursions.
By no means the least of the adventitious benefitsenjoyed by the explorer has been the acquisition of akeener sense of appreciation of the labours of the archaeologist,the anthropologist, and other, more special, typesof investigator, any one of whom would naturally be farbetter qualified to discuss the theme under consideration—atany rate from the standpoint of his particular branchof learning—than the present author can hope to be.
The special thanks of the writer are due to ProfessorW. M. Flinders Petrie for permission to make useof his diagram of the conjectural restoration of theviiiLabyrinth of Egypt, Fig. 4, and the view of the shrineof Amenemhat III, Fig. 2, also for facilities to sketchthe Egyptian plaque in his collection which is shown inFig. 19 and for drawing the writer's attention thereto;to Sir Arthur Evans for the use of his illustrations ofdouble axes and of the Tomb of the Double Axe whichappear as Figs. 9, 10, 11...