the time of the Christians, this church was much larger, and more extensive by many appendages; but these have long gone to ruin, and only the choir itself, and the middle part have remained. Almost all the Turkish temples are built upon the model of this. In this temple there is still a picture of the most Holy Trinity in the ceiling, near the imperial seat, formed of good mosaic work of various colours, which the Turks leave in its original form; but they have put out the eyes of all the persons, and Sultan Selim shot an arrow at this picture, and pierced the hand of one Person, and the arrow still sticks in it.
Close to this temple are the tombs of the Turkish emperors, and of some of their wives and children, who have been strangled. These are of a circular form, like a kind of chapel, and covered with a lead roof. Each sultan’s, or sultana’s, coffin is wrapped in valuable and beautiful scarlet, and covered at the top with gold brocade. At the head of each coffin is a turban, made of very beautiful and fine linen, which they wore on their heads while living, as well as a very beautiful bunch of cranes’ feathers. Behind the head of each coffin stand two large wax-candles, on candlesticks, in the form of round and pointed balls, which, however, were not at that time lighted. By the side of the coffin of the Turkish Emperor Soliman was a beautiful sabre, adorned with precious stones, and a bow and a quiver, in token that he had ended his life in war. In these chapels, where the dead bodies lie, are constantly, day and night, talismanlars and hodzyaslars. Turkish monks, appointed for the purpose, who, sitting crosslegged, after the Turkish fashion, say prayers for the
