CONSTANTINOPLE. 73 
appear with their bodies oiled, having no other chap. 
clothing than a tight pair of leathern breeches < — v— — ' 
covered also with oil. So much has been 
already written upon these subjects, that any 
further detail would be superfluous. Belon, in 
his interesting work, composed near three cen- 
turies ago, appropriated an entire chapter to a 
description of the Turkish wrestling-matches \ 
The same observation is not applicable to the mppo- 
ilrome> 
Hippodrome; now called j^tmeidan, which also 
signifies the Horse-course; because many erro- 
neous statements have appeared with regard 
to the antiquities it contains, particularly the 
absurd story, generally propagated, concerning 
the blow given by Mohammed the Second, with his 
battle-axe, to the famous Delphic Pillar of three 
brazen serpents : it is said he smote off the 
head of one of the serpents. This place pre- 
serves nearly the state in which it was left by 
the Greeks. The mosque in front, near the 
stood, if the commentators had known, that the Greeks, in fishing', 
let the line with the lead at the end run over a piece of horn fixed on 
the side of the boat ; this is the meaning of hcct ay^avXaio fioo; xi^as 
tfi^ificcvTcc. {II. n. V. 81.) The flesh of the camel, which bears in 
taste a resemblance to veal, is now eaten by the Turks, as also by the 
Arabians, on days of festivity, as it was by the Persians in the time of 
Herodotus. (Clio.)" Walpolt's MS. Journal. 
(2) De la Luicte de Turquie, chap, xxxviii. liv. iii. des Singular, 
observies par Belon, p. 201. /'w. 1555. 
