LECTURES. 25 
the body, which was sitting in a dignified upright position, and was 
arrayed in magnificent robes. ‘The day was exceedingly hot; the 
service was perhaps ritualistic, but certainly “ Aig.” Then 
ensued a description of the transport of the body, still seated 
on a throne, through six miles of city, and through dense masses 
of spectators, to its final resting place at Baluki. The Turkish 
ladies spent all their time smoking and drinking coffee. And 
also, he doubted not, like ladies of all classes, gossiping and talking 
scandal. The plain ones wore thick veils up to their eyes; it was a 
remarkable fact, however, tke prettier the lady, the thinner the veil. 
When walking in a street apparently empty, hundreds of bright eyes 
were gazing down from the windows. It was considered bad form to 
look up at the windows. 
Then followed a most interesting account of the Mosque of St. 
Sophia. The dome had lost its silvery splendour which once, 
according to the Greeks, made it visible from Mount Olympus. Within, 
above the dome gallery, there were forty arched windows. On the 
top is written the sentence, “ Allah is the light of Heaven and Earth.” 
The church was originally built by Constantine in a.D. 325; burnt 
down in 404; rebuilt in 415 ; again burnt down in Justinian’s reign 
532, by whom it rebuilt in 538. 
Several interesting legends were then told in connection with the 
Mosque of St. Sophia. The lecturer added, ‘It was said that when 
Mahomet II. took Constantinople in 1453, Saint Sophia was crowded 
with a huge mob of terror-stricken refugees of all classes who had 
sought safety in the sacred building (then a Greek church) from the 
fury of the Turks. The latter ruthlessly broke into the sacred building 
and committed all sorts of excesses. At that particular time a Bishop 
was engaged in offering the mass at the high altar. He had to leave off 
in the middle of the ceremony, and marching away in a dignified 
manner he walked through a door in the wall, which immediately 
turned into asolid mass of masonry. The infidel horde rushed after 
him with scimitars and daggers, but all to no purpose. Then a mason 
was set to work with the implements of his profession. His labours 
were equally futile. Then all the masons in Constantinople were sum- 
moned, but the wall still resisted their united efforts. The legend was 
that the Bishop was still waiting behind his mural fortress for the 
restoration of St. Sophia to the Christians, and that when that happy 
consummation took place, he would emerge from his resting place, 
walk to the high altar, and resume the service at the precise point 
where he had left off. Might all be there to see!” 
