ra, in her softest accents,
'that fool of yours saw me and my maidens looking into a mirror and
mistook the faces reflected there for dolls.' The emperor did not press
the case, but a few days later the servants of Theodora caught Denderis
and gave him a sound thrashing for telling tales, dismissing him with
the advice to let dolls alone in the future. In consequence of this
experience, whenever the jester was afterwards asked whether he had seen
his 'mamma's' dolls recently, he put one hand to his mouth and the other
far down his back and whispered, 'Don't speak to me about dolls.'[470]
Such were the pleasantries that relieved the stern warfare against
eikons.

[Illustration: PLATE LXXVIII.
GASTRIA (SANJAKAR, MESJEDI). EAST END.]

[Illustration: GASTRIA (SANJAKAR, MESJEDI). THE ENTRANCE.
_To face page 268._]

On the occasion of the breach between Theodora and her son Michael III.,
on account of the murder of her friend and counsellor Theoctistos at
Michael's order, she and her four daughters, Thekla, Anastasia, Anna,
and Pulcheria, were confined in the Gastria, and there, with the
exception of Anna, they were eventually buried.[471] At the Gastria were
shown also the tombs of Theoctista, her son Petronas, Irene the daughter
of Bardas, and a small chest containing the lower jaw of Bardas[472]
himself. It is this connection with the family of Theophilus, in life
and in death, that lends chief interest to the Gastria.

_Architectural Features_

(For Plan see p. 267.)

Although the building is now almost a complete ruin, it still preserves
some architectural interest. On the exterior it is an octagonal
structure, with a large arch on each side rising to the cornice, and
thus presents a strong likeness to the Byzantine building known as Sheik
Suleiman Mesjedi, near the Pantokrator (p. 25). The northern, southern,
and western arches are pierced by windows. The entrance is in the
western arch. The interior presents the form of an equal-armed cross,
the arms being deep recesses covered with semicircular vaults. The dome
over the central area has fallen in. The apse, semicircular within and
showing five sides on the exterior, is attached to the eastern arm. Its
three central sides are occupied by a triple-shafted window. Two shallow
niches represent the usual apsidal chambers. A similar niche is found
also on both sides of the entrance and on the eastern side of the
northern arm of the cross. In the wall to th