BEAUTIES OF THE BOSPHORUS. 117
PLATE: THE TCHERNBERLE TASH, OR BURNT PILLAR.
and these are principally to be found among the women, who have a superstitious horror of all innovation, and who cling to their old habits and their old associations with a perseverance worthy of a better cause.
The Teskari, or Custom-House, is also situated at Galata, where passengers and merchandise are landed from the different vessels which are constantly arriving in the harbour; and the extreme urbanity and politeness of the officers of the establishment to travellers, has been a constant theme of admiration and acknowledgment with all sojourners in the East.
When a group of strangers approach the Teskari, the only inquiry made, is, whether they have brought any merchandise for the purposes of traffic; and a simple negative from the parties addressed suffices for the unimpeded passage of the travellers to their resting-place.
Few are the weary and the wayworn who, at that moment, would wish themselves at the Custom-house of London, or at one of the still more irritating Douanes of France!
THE TCHERNBERLÈ TASCH.
"A tale of the times of old."
OSSIAN.
THE Tchernberlé Tasch, or Burnt Pillar, is a striking Roman remain, within a short walk of the Seraskier's Tower. It is a relic of the Temple of Apollo at Rome, whence it was transported to Stamboul by Constantine, and placed upon an hexagonal pedestal. It was surmounted by a fine statue of the god, from the immortal chisel of Phidias, which the conqueror appropriated with more ambition than modesty, and beneath which he caused to be inscribed, "The Justice of the Sun to the Illustrious Constantine." The destruction of this noble statue is variously described by different writers. Genaro Esquilichi asserts that it was overthrown by a thunderbolt; while the sententious Anna de Comnena mentions its prostration by a strong southerly wind, during the reign of her kinsman Alexius; and moreover declares that several persons were killed by its fall.