Constantinople and its environs Volume 1 - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1835 Excerpt: ... a stone house in the United States, the drippings from the walls of which so much annoy her, could have answered satisfactorily. The pictures in this church, as in all the Greek Catholic churches, are of a singular character. It resembles very much the Chinese or Japanese, such as you see on Japan ware. It has no relief, is flat, insipid, and destitute of perspective. Of this they appear to be sensible; therefore when the Virgin of Sorrow is represented, she has a silver hilted dagger stuck into her heart, the handle projecting from the canvass. Her silver hands are also raised to heaven at an angle of forty-five degrees, and stand forth from the picture. There is also something very like the half of the rim of a silver plate over her head, and coming, like the horns of the crescent, down on each side to her ears. The representation of "Christ crucified" has a singular appearance, with his silver hands and feet, and the silver heads of the nails sticking'out towards you. It appears to be a sort of compromise between a picture and a statue. The Greek Catholics are forbidden to prostrate themselves before a picture or a statue. But I am getting rather ahead; when I come to touch on the religious customs of this modern Babel, I must brace myself up to the subject. As they say in the Bible, and as they do here, (every man and woman wearing a girdle), I must "gird up my loins" to the task., When I seated myself to write this letter, I intended to lead you through the harem of a Turkish house, and into the veiy secret recesses of it. It was from a Turkish woman that I rented it. I made my bargain with her in her most private apartments. She is about thirty, a good-looking, portly widow. She has since visited and remained more than an hour wit...