THE TCHERNBERLÈ TASCH. 118
Other authors speak more vaguely, naming the storm-shock as a cause of its partial destruction, and alluding to the second accident as having also tended to its final demolition. The shaft of the pillar measures ninety feet in height; it is circular, and girdled at regular distances with garlands of laurel and oak-leaves; but its beauty is entirely gone, as it has suffered so severely from the repeated conflagrations in its immediate vicinity, that it is cracked in every direction, and merely kept together by a strong wirework, which has been carefully woven about it.
The pedestal upon which it stands measures thirty feet at its base, and is rendered interesting by the fact, that several portions of the Holy Cross were built up within it, and that the space amid which it stood consequently became a popular place of prayer, every mounted passenger reverently alighting from his horse as he passed before it; but the Moselm, not recognising the divinity of the relics enshrined within its solid masonry, nor the sanctity of the spot thus hallowed, have surrounded the pillar on every side with mean and unsightly houses; and it is only in one solitary direction that the anxious antiquary can obtain a satisfactory view of this singular monument. The pedestal bears a Greek inscription, now nearly obliterates, which has been translated thus: -
" O Christ, Master and Protector of the World, I dedicate to Thee this City, subject to Thee; and the Sceptre and the Empire of Rome.. Guard the City, and protect it from all evil!"
PLATE: VIEW FROM THE FERRY AT SCUTARI.
THE FERRY AT SCUTARI.
"The tints of beauty, which the sun above
Spread, as though left as tokens of his love
For that fair clime which had for ages given
Earth's loveliest pictures to his light from heaven."
JAMES BIRD.
SCUTARI, the Chrysopolis of the Greeks, occupying the promontory opposite Constantinople, won its ancient name from the circumstance that here, during their European wanderings, the Persians deposited their treasures, and paid their tribute. The Turks now call it Iskuidar, and entertain vast reverence for its wide necropolis; while the handsome Kislas, or barrack, which dominates the town, is an object of no less admiration to the Frank traveller.