ge of Constantinople to the present day.

I have hitherto noticed those monasteries only which are under the
spiritual jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople, but those of
the Copts of Egypt and the Maronites of Syria resemble them in almost
every particular. As it has never been the custom of the Oriental
Christians to bury the dead within the precincts of the church, they
none of them contain sepulchral monuments. The bodies of the Byzantine
emperors were enclosed in sarcophagi of precious marbles, which were
usually deposited in chapels erected for the purpose--a custom which has
been imitated by the sultans of Turkey. Of all these magnificent
sarcophagi and chapels or mausoleums where the remains of the imperial
families were deposited, only one remains intact; every one but this has
been violated, destroyed, or carried away; the ashes of the Caesars have
been scattered to the winds. This is now known by the name of the chapel
of St. Nazario e Celso, at Ravenna: it was built by Galla Placidia, the
daughter of Theodosius; she died at Rome in 440, but her body was
removed to Ravenna and deposited in a sarcophagus in this chapel; in the
same place are two other sarcophagi, one containing the remains of
Constantius, the second husband of Galla Placidia, and the other holding
the body of her son Valentinian III. These tombs have never been
disturbed, and are the only ones which remain intact of the entire line
of the Caesars, either of the Eastern or Western empires.

The tombstones or monuments of the Armenians deserve to be mentioned on
account of their singularity. They are usually oblong pieces of marble
lying flat upon the ground; on these are sculptured representations of
the implements of the trade at which the deceased had worked during his
lifetime; some display the manner in which the Armenian met his death.
In the Petit Champ des Morts at Pera I counted, I think, five tombstones
with bas-reliefs of men whose heads had been cut off. In Armenia the
traveller is often startled by the appearance of a gigantic stone figure
of a ram, far away from any present habitation: this is the tomb of some
ancient possessor of flocks and herds whose house and village have
disappeared, and nothing but his tomb remains to mark the site which
once was the abode of men.

[Illustration: KOORD, OR NATIVE OF KOORDISTAUN.]

The Armenian monasteries, with the exception of that of Etchmiazin and
one or two others, are much s