But, doctor, even you, a Hittite, saw what our Mycenaean shields were like! Oh, don’t smile, I may be an old woman, but I know what I am talking about, and if you will be patient, you will understand, too.

Our shields were formed by stretching a hide on to a frame, made with rounded cross-bars at top and bottom, fixed to a central spar of ash or olive-wood. The leather at either side, not having the support of the cross-bars, shrank away and pulled in tightly when it dried out. So the shield took on its own peculiar shape, not round, nor oval, but more like the form of a woman with her wasp-waist lying between broad breasts and wide hips.

You are smiling again, doctor, because you do not understand; you imagine me to be talking of a shield, or a woman’s body, but these things are only an example, for I am describing the heart speaking out, the mind as you call it.