as exactly the same
shape; and he wore a moustache that ended in large, hirsutical
corkscrews; his teeth were like small bits of marble stained with
tobacco juice, and they had the effect of an arc made from the spear of
a sword fish, grim and terrible. Altogether he was a remarkable
man--one to be feared at night when near the Bosphorus; although, if
the bitter truth must be told, he avoided impartially both salt water
and fresh, whenever possible. My word! "Muley" was no ordinary,
amateur Munchhausen! he was full of exact statements which he encrusted
with legends that were utterly bare-faced. After hearing one of his
flights of fancy, a fat brewer from the West remarked:

"It's better not to believe so much or to know so many facts that
aren't so; but this is the devil of a place, anyhow; that's right!"

Muley looked at him with fine scorn and went on at his usual gait.
Later I told him (Muley), the story of the Irish judge who once said to
a prisoner whom he was about to sentence:

"We don't want anything from you but silence--and very little of that!"

This hint had a depressing effect, and Muley lost his nerve and the
character he had enjoyed with us of being a picturesque and fearless
liar.

Sancta Sophia was built in Stamboul across the Golden Horn by the
Emperor Justinian in 537 A.D. (fire having destroyed the edifice
originally erected by Constantine and replaced by the church built by
Theodosia, which was also burned). The dome is one hundred and eighty
feet from the floor. To adorn it, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus was
ravaged of eight serpentine columns, and eight more of porphyry were
taken from the Temple of the Sun at Baalbek to add to its beauty. It
is alleged that its cost approached $64,000,000, including the "graft."
Its artistic value is greatly depreciated by the squalor of its
environment. Looking at this great pile, a speculative wag remarked,
with a twinkle in his eye:

"It's all a question of money. Give me the financial assistance of J.
D. R., and with one of the big American construction companies to take
the contract I can produce a building fully equal to this in less time
and for very much less money."

He was right. It would be only a question of deciding to do it. The
Landis' comic-opera fine would be sufficient.

The Sultan's Palace and the ancient Hippodrome are also places of great
interest. In the latter were deposited the four gilded bronze horses,
supposed to