SAINT SOPHIA.       61

PLATE: COURT AND FOUNTAIN OF ST SOPHIA.

and near him the Dervish, with his conical hat of grey felt; the Stanton, or saint, all filth and holiness; and occasionally a closely-muffled female, her dark eyes flashing out between the folds of her snowy veil, her feet covered with boots and slippers of yellow morocco, and her form shrouded in a heavy cloak of dark-coloured cloth.

If a stranger approach to examine the wares of the hadji, it is curious to witness the interest which every individual takes in the success of his trade. The lookers-on will seize a chaplet of Arabian wood, rub it rapidly in their hands, and hod it towards him, that he may inhale its perfume, expatiating all the time on its extreme sweetness; while exclamations of "Guzel! peh guzel! - good! very good!" form a perfect chorus; or they will smear their beards with dye to convince him of its efficacy, if by these means they can induce the sale of any of the scattered articles about them. Nor are they fastidious in their commercial notions, for they stand quietly and encouragingly by, while the wily hadji cheats the unclean giaour, without evincing any inclination to rescue the victim; and as he bears away some treasure, for which he has probably paid about five times its value, the worthy Moslems see him depart with an ejaculation of "Allah Buyûk der - God is great!" and then calmly resume the chibouque and the narration where each had been interrupted.

From the court, a stately covered peristyle, similar to that of St. Peter's at Rome, whose ponderous granite columns are imbedded in the walls, conducts to the body of the mosque; and here the visitor casts off his shoes, and puts on the slippers of yellow morocco, which are alone permitted to press the floor of the temple. This done, the great gates (which close upon a block of porphyry) are thrown back, the curtain or tapestry is drawn aside, and in a moment the eye is bewildered amid the space which is suddenly spread out before it.

The richly mosaiced floor of jasper, porphyry, verd-antique, and marble, is covered with bright-coloured carpets; thousands of steined glass lamps are suspended in complicated designs from transverse rods of iron which traverse the body of the building in every direction; the Imperial closet, facing the pulpit, is of finely and intricately-wrought marble, with a cornice that looks like petrified point-lace; but it is the vastness of St. Sophia which for a time fills the imagination and satisfies the fancy of the traveller; and it requires time to divest him of the feeling of involuntary awe by which he is at first overwhelmed, ere he can compel himself to any analysis of the detail around him. Gigantic pillars encircle the dome, which is of a magnitude strikingly majestic; and a host of antique treasures are collected together, each a gem in itself; but they are forded into most incongruous contact.