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tant places on the mainland. First were Corinth and the Corinth canal - see picture. This is dead straight across the isthmus, like some giant had just taken a sharp stick and scratched a deep furrow from sea to sea. We covered various historical spots including Mycenae, where Agamemnon reigned. This was the principal city of the Greeks at the time of the Trojan War. When it was excavated again by Schleimann, who had discovered Troy, he found hoards of golden objects including a cup which had been described by Homer as the one from which Ulysses drank. It is on display in the Athenian museum, and I was so impressed with it that a reproduc- tion of it now rests on my mantelpiece at home. We went on to Olympia, where the original Olympic games were held, and saw the stadium, the temples, baths, etc. Having been an athlete in my college days and having seen the Olympics in 1932 in Los Angeles, I was particularly thrilled to be here "where it all started." There is an Olympic Museum in the town, too, which I visited and found interesting; but I was the only one of our tour group that did-it figures. The next day's ride took us across the Gulf of Corinth on a strange little ferry boat to a landing at Itea, which is below fabled Delphi, up to which we drove for a two day stay. I never realized before that Delphi is on the side of a mountain below cliffs a couple of thousand feet higher straight up and above a very deep Yosemite-like valley almost straight below. It's a breathtaking sight. No wonder the an- cient Greeks found it a place of the gods. Apollo had his chief temple here and of course the Delphic Oracle. The accompanying picture shows the stone over which the Delphic priestess who was the current oracle sat. In those days there were volcanic fumes arising from the ground at this place, and the priestess sat over the vents and breathed the fumes. She was also given bay leaves to chew which have a toxic principle in them. The combination of the two sent her on a "trip" in which she uttered various words which the priests in attendance then rearranged so as to give a subtle meaning-something like fortune cookies. But the priests were sharp-why not, they had a good thing going as treasures were left by the great and the common -- they had their spies throughout the ancient world keeping them abreast of current events, intrigues, wars, scandals, etc. So they seemed to have some sort of local information for most anyone who came there. This made it the most famous oracle of the ancient world.

After two nights at Delphi we began the long bus ride back to Athens with some considerable doubt as to whether we would make it. It was on a Sunday and the oil crisis was on in Greece (this was the 4th of Novem- ber) and stations were closed. Our bus driver finally drained the diesel oil from the air conditioning motor and put it into the gas tank, and we made it back to Athens safely. The next morning all the rest flew off to New

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