RELIGION, EDUCATION, FINE ARTS. 



537 



process the body was scraped with strigiles 

 (small curved instruments usually made of 

 bronze). Being now dried with cloths, and 

 slightly anointed all over with perfumed oils, 

 he resumed his dress, and then passed a short 

 time, successively, in the tepidarium and the 

 frigidarium, or temperate and cold rooms, 

 which softened the transition from the great 

 heat of the caldarium into the open air. The 

 artificial bath has been used from the most 

 ancient times of which we have any record. 

 It is mentioned in Homer, the vessel for bath- 

 ing being described as of polished marble and 

 the warm baths referred to as effeminate. Pub- 

 lic baths were common in Greece during the 

 historic period, and they were in use at Rome 

 from early times ; but during the Republic they 

 continued small, dark, and inconvenient, and 

 it was not until the time of the Empire that 

 they reached their great size and splendor. 



Russia, Religion of. The Established 

 Church of Russia, to which the great majority 

 of the inhabitants belong, is identical in doc- 

 trine with, and is a branch of, the Greek 

 Church. The liturgy used is the same as that 

 originally used by the Church at Constantino- 

 ple, but it is read, not in Greek, but in the 

 Sclavonic tongue. Previous to the time of 

 Alexander II., dissent in all its forms was not 

 only discouraged but often rigorously repressed 

 and it has only been during very late years that 

 general toleration has been permitted. The 

 Roman Catholic Church has been the object 

 of especial severity in the past, particularly 



during the reign of the Czar Nicholas. Under 

 the laws of Alexander II., all Catholics and 

 Protestants enjoy civil rights with members of 

 the Established Church, and are equally ad- 

 missible to the highest offices of the empire. 

 Christianity was introduced into Russia in the 

 ninth century. 



Taj Mahal was built by the Shah Jihan of 

 India as a mausoleum for the remains of his wife 

 Nourmahal, and is situated at Agra. It is of 

 white marble, 100 feet in diameter and 200 feet 

 in height, built in the form of an irregular oc- 

 tagon, and rising from a marble terrace, under 

 which is a second terrace of red sandstone. 

 At the corners of the marble terrace are lofty 

 minarets, and in the center of the main build- 

 ing rises a dome, flanked by cupolas of similar 

 form. Every part, even the basement, the 

 dome, and the upper galleries of the minarets, 

 is inlaid with ornamental designs in marble of 

 different colors, principally of pale brown and 

 bluish violet. Here and there, also, the exte- 

 rior and interior are decorated with mosaics of 

 precious stones. The whole Koran is said to 

 be written in mosaics of precious stones on the 

 interior walls. In the construction of this 

 magnificent building, which, as Bayard Taylor 

 says, alone repays a visit to India, 20,000 men 

 were employed twenty years. Although the 

 labor cost nothing, over 120,000,000 were ex- 

 pended in its construction. The doors are of 

 solid silver, and an enormous diamond was 

 placed upon the tomb itself. 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL STATISTICS OF ALL COUNTRIES. 



The total number of teachers and scholars in the world, according to this report, was 22,508,661. 

 The table does not include the schools of the Roman Catholic and Non-Evangelical Protestant churches. The 

 number of scholars in Roman Catholic Sunday schools in the United States is estimated by clerics at 800,000. 



