II 
v.. 
76 CONSTANTINOPLE. 
CHAP. Mohammed. The history of the subsequent loss 
of these heads is related by ChishulP. " The 
" second pillar/' says he, " is of wreathed brass, 
*' not above twelve feet high ; lately terminated 
" at the top with figures of three serpents, rising 
^' from the pillar, and with necks arid heads forming 
" a beautiful triangle. But this monument v/as 
" rudely broken from the top of the pillar, by 
" so?ne attendants of the late Polish ambassador , 
" whose lodgings were appointed in the Cirque, 
*' opposite to the said pillar." An absurd notion 
has prevailed, that the present mutilated state 
of the column originated in the blow it received 
from the axe of Mohammed. 
(1) Travels in Turkey, p. 40. Lond. 1747. 
(2) After the publication of the first edition of this Part of the 
author's Travels, one of the Reviewers contradicted this observation of 
OtishuU; saying, " not of the Polish, but of the Imperial ambassador ;" 
citing Dc La Motruye's Travels in support of the objection. It is 
however founded upon one of those errors to which Reviewers as well 
as Authors may be liable ; for De La Motraye distinctly states, t!;at 
the ambassador was Count Lisinslty, Palatine oi Posen, " who came to 
Constantinople in quality of Ambassador Extraordinary from the King 
and Republic of Poland." See De La Motraye' s Travels, vol.\. 
p. 205. Lond. 1732. 
