CURIOSITIES RESPECTING TEMPLES, ETC.—(Continued.)

Seraglio—Museum—Colossus—and Obelisk.

Seraglio.—This word is commonly used to express the house or palace of a prince. In this sense it is frequently used at Constantinople: the houses of foreign ambassadors are called seraglios. But it is commonly used, by way of eminence, for the palace of the grand seignior at Constantinople; where he keeps his court,—where his concubines are lodged—and where the youth are trained up for the chief posts of the empire. It is a triangle, about three Italian miles round, wholly within the city, at the end of the promontory Chrysoceras, now called the Seraglio Point. The buildings run back to the bottom of the hill, and thence are gardens that reach to the edge of the sea. It is inclosed with a very high and strong wall, upon which there are several watch-towers; and it has many gates, some of which open towards the sea-side, and the rest into the city: but the chief gate is one of the latter, which is constantly guarded by a company of capooches, or porters: and in the night it is well guarded towards the sea. The outward appearance is not elegant; the architecture being irregular, consisting of separate edifices in the form of pavilions and domes. The ladies of the seraglio are a collection of beautiful young women, chiefly sent as presents from the provinces and Greek islands, and most of them the children of Christian parents. The brave prince Heraclicus for some years abolished the infamous tribute of children of both sexes, which Georgia formerly paid every year to the Porte. The number of women in the Harem depends on the taste of the reigning sultan. Selim had two thousand, Achmet had but three hundred, and the late sultan had nearly one thousand six hundred. On their admission, they are committed to the care of the old ladies, taught sewing, embroidery, music, dancing, &c. and furnished with the richest clothes and ornaments. They all sleep in separate beds, and between every fifth there is a preceptress. Their chief governess is called Katon Kiaga, or governess of the noble young ladies. There is no servant, for they are obliged to wait on one another by rotation; the last that is entered serves her who preceded her, and herself.

These ladies are scarcely ever suffered to go abroad, except when the grand seignior removes from one place to another, when a troop of black eunuchs convey them to the boats, which are inclosed with lattices and linen curtains; and when they go by land they are put into close chariots, and signals are made at certain distances, to give notice that none approach the roads through which they march. The boats of the Harem, which carry the grand seignior’s wives, are manned with twenty-four rowers, and have white covered tilts, shut alternately by Venetian blinds. Among the emperor’s attendants are a number of mutes, who act and converse by signs with great quickness, and some dwarfs, who are exhibited for the sultan’s amusement.

When he permits the women to walk in the gardens of the seraglio, all people are ordered to retire, and on every side is a guard of black eunuchs, with sabres in their hands, while others go their rounds to hinder any person from seeing them. If any one is found in the garden, even through ignorance or inadvertence, he is instantly killed, and his head brought to the feet of the grand seignior, who rewards the guard for their vigilance.

Sometimes the grand seignior passes into the gardens to amuse himself when the women are there, and it is then they make use of all their utmost efforts, by dancing, singing, seducing gestures, and amorous blandishments, to attract his affections. It is not permitted that the monarch should take a virgin to his bed, except during the solemn festivals, and on occasion of some extraordinary rejoicings, or the arrival of some good news. Upon such occasions, if the sultan chooses a new companion to his bed, he enters into the apartment of the women, who are ranged in files by the governesses, to whom he speaks, and intimates the person he likes best. As soon as the grand seignior has chosen the girl destined to be the partner of his bed, all the others follow her to the bath, washing and perfuming her, and dressing her superbly, and thus conduct her, with singing, dancing, and rejoicing, to the bedchamber of the grand seignior; and if by a certain time she becomes pregnant, and is delivered of a boy, she is called asaki-sultaness, that is to say, sultaness-mother. For the first son she has the honour to be crowned, and she has the liberty of forming her court: eunuchs are also assigned for her guard, and for her particular service. No other ladies, though delivered of boys, are either crowned or maintained with such costly distinction at the first; but they have their service apart, and handsome appointments. At the death of the sultan, the mothers of the male children are shut up in the old seraglio, whence they can never come out any more, unless any of their sons ascend the throne.

Baron de Tott informs us, that the female slave who becomes the mother of the sultan, and lives long enough to see her son mount the throne, is the only woman who at that period acquires the distinction of sultana-mother; she is till then in the interior of her prison with her son. The title bachl-kadun, or principal woman, is the first dignity of the grand seignior’s Harem; and she has a larger allowance than those who have the title of second, third, and fourth woman, which are the four free women the Koran allows.

It must strike every reader, that the present happy condition of females in Christian countries is directly attributable to Christianity; and this stamps an inestimable value on the gospel. Females should consider it as the charter of their privileges. The Christian religion has, by its letter or spirit, exploded customs and practices which were the immediate causes of female degradation and wretchedness. It has made marriage pure and honourable, by prohibiting polygamy, and restricting within very narrow limits the dangerous liberty of divorce; two customs which violate the plain order and design of Providence in creation, which degrade woman to insignificance and slavery, and which brought on that dissoluteness and corruption of manners in most ancient and some modern nations.

Museum,—is a collection of rare and interesting objects, selected from the whole circle of natural history and the arts, and deposited in apartments or buildings, either by the commendable generosity of rich individuals, general governments, or monarchs, for the inspection of the learned, and the great mass of the public.

The term, which means literally a study, or place of retirement, is said to have been given originally to that part of the royal palace at Alexandria, appropriated for the use of learned men, and the reception of the literary works then extant. According to ancient writers, they were formed into classes or colleges, each of which had a competent sum assigned for their support; and we are further informed, that the establishment was founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus, who added a most extensive library.

It would answer little purpose to trace the history of Museums, as the earlier part of it is involved in obscurity; and as we approach our own times, they multiply beyond a possibility of noticing even the most important. Within our brief limits we shall, therefore, confine ourselves to those at the Vatican, Florence, Paris, Oxford, and London.

The Museum of the Vatican might originally have been said to occupy all the apartments of the palace, which are more numerous than in any other royal residence in the world: the pictures, the books, the manuscripts, statues, bas-reliefs, and every other description of the labours of ancient artists, were select, uncommon, and valuable in the extreme, particularly the Laocoon, already described, and said, by Pliny, to have been made from a single mass of marble; which circumstance has since caused a doubt whether that of the Vatican is really the original, as Michael Angelo discovered that it is composed of more than one piece. It was found, in 1506, near the baths of Titus, and, whether an original or a copy, has obtained and deserves every possible admiration.—This invaluable collection continued to increase for several centuries, and till nearly the present period.

The grand dukes of Tuscany were for a long series of years ardent admirers of the arts, ancient and modern, and regretted no expense in obtaining the most rare and beautiful objects which vast treasures were capable of procuring; consequently their Museum at Florence vied with that of Rome, and, in some instances, the value of particular articles exceeded any possibility of rivalship: we allude to the Venus de Medicis, of which Keysler speaks thus, in his excellent account of that part of the continent: “I shall conclude this short criticism on the celebrated Venus de Medicis, with the following observation, made by some able connoisseurs, namely, that if the different parts of this famous statue be examined separately, as the head, nose, &c. and compared with the like parts of others, it would not be impossible to find similar parts equal, if not superior, to those of the Venus de Medicis; but if the delicacy of the shape, the attitude, and symmetry of the whole, be considered as an assemblage of beauties, it cannot be paralleled in the whole world. This beautiful statue is placed between two others of the same goddess, both which would be admired by spectators in any other place; but here all their beauties are eclipsed by those of the Venus de Medicis, to which they can be considered only as foils to augment the lustre of that admired statue.” Little is known in England of the present state of the Florentine Museum, but it is feared to be deplorable.

We shall now turn our attention to the MuseÉ Central des Arts, formed in the Louvre at Paris, composed with the best collections on the continent, and consequently consisting of the finest specimens of human art.

The method adopted for arranging the paintings here assembled is judicious, as they are classed in nations, by which means the eye is conducted gradually to the acme of the art, in the works of the Italian masters.

The gallery of antiquities is directly below the gallery of pictures; and, to give some idea of the nature of the general contents, we shall mention the names of the several divisions, which are: La Salle de Saisons,—La Salle des Hommes illustres,—La Salle des Romains,—La Salle de Laocoon,—La Salle de l’Apollon,—and La Salle des Muses. The Laocoon, which we have noticed in our account of the Vatican, here received distinguished honours, within a space railed in; and the Apollo Belvidere is equally honoured, in giving name to one of the halls.

These exquisite works are described in a catalogue, which may be obtained in the gallery; and of the manner we shall venture to give a specimen, hoping that a similar method may be adopted, to explain the objects offered to view in our national repository. Under the head ‘Pythian Apollo,’ called the Apollo Belvidere, the author of the catalogue observes, “This statue, the most sublime of those preserved by time, was found, near the close of the fifteenth century, twelve leagues from Rome, at Cape d’Anzo, on the borders of the sea, in the ruins of ancient Antium, a city equally celebrated for its Temple of Fortune, and for its pleasant mansions, erected by successive emperors, which, emulous of each other, they decorated with the most rare and excellent works of art. Julius II. when a cardinal, obtained this statue, and placed it in the palace where he resided, near the church of the Holy Apostles. After his elevation to the pontificate, he had it removed to the Belvidere of the Vatican, where it remained three centuries an object of universal admiration. A hero, conducted by victory, drew it from the Vatican, and causing it to be conveyed to the banks of the Seine, has fixed it here for ever.”

Another Museum established at Paris after the return of order, is that of the National Monuments. These were indiscriminately destroyed, or mutilated, during the first frantic emotions of the revolution; and this act contributed not a little to the general dislike it excited: at length the most enlightened part of the National Convention decreed imprisonment in chains to those who should thenceforward injure or destroy the marble and bronze records of their country. Le Noir, a man of taste and learning, seized this opportunity of rescuing the French nation from the reproach it had incurred by destroying what was honourable to themselves; and conceived that, though late, it might still be possible to collect whole monuments in some instances, and fragments in others, sufficient to interest foreigners in favour of his country, or at least to evince to them that a change in sentiment had taken place. Fortunately his plan received public encouragement, and he has, through the assistance of government, procured an astonishing number of specimens from all parts of the kingdom.

Mr. Pinkerton observes of this collection, “It will not escape the attention of the reader of taste, that the arrangement is confused, nay, often capricious, and is capable of great improvement.” And Le Maitre says, upon the same subject, “After several hours employed in this second view, I continue of my former opinion, that the spot (formerly a convent) in which these monuments are collected, is infinitely too small; that the garden, meant to be the tranquil site of sepulchral honours, and the calm retreat of departed grandeur, is on so limited a scale, so surrounded with adjoining houses, and altogether so ill arranged, that instead of presenting the model of

“Those deep solitudes ...
Where heav’nly pensive contemplation dwells,
And ever musing melancholy reigns;”

it might easily be mistaken for the working yard of a statuary, or the pleasure ground of a tasteless citizen, decked out with Cupids, Mercuries, and Fawns.” Both these authors, however, agree in praising the motives and perseverance of Le Noir.

Oxford has the honour of producing the first, and not the least important Museum in England; which was founded in 1679, and the building completed in 1683, at the expense of the university. The students, the public, and the professors, are indebted to Elias Ashmole, Esq. for an invaluable collection of interesting objects presented by him for their use, and immediately placed within it; since which period it has been called the Ashmolean Museum. The structure, in the Corinthian order of architecture, has a magnificent portal; and the variety and value of the articles contained in it, renders a visit to the apartments highly gratifying, particularly as they are increased from time to time, as often as rare objects can be procured.

The British Museum, in London, a repository under the immediate care of government, and itself governed by fifteen trustees, selected from the highest and most honourable offices of the state, promises to exceed every other national institution, which is not supported by the spoliation and plunder of others. However inferior it may appear to those splendid collections, which consist of the most exquisite productions of the chisel and the pencil ever accomplished by man, we have the consolation to reflect, that, had it been possible to procure them by purchase, the liberality of the British nation is such, that Italy and many other countries would have long since been drained; but as the case is, each inhabitant of England may exclaim, with his characteristic integrity, as he views the vast collection which he in common with all his countrymen possesses, “These are individually our own by fair purchase or gift!” Sir Robert Cotton may be said to have laid the foundation of the British Museum, by his presenting his excellent collection of manuscripts to the public; those, and the offer of Sir Hans Sloane’s books, manuscripts, and curious articles in antiquity and natural history, for £20,000, suggested the propriety of accepting the latter, and providing a place for the reception of both: from this time government proceeded rapidly in forming the plan, and at length every interior regulation for officers, trustees, &c. being made, Montague House, situated in Russell-street, Bloomsbury, was purchased for £10,250, and fitted for the reception of the articles then possessed, and to be bought at the further expense of £14,484. 6s. 4d.: after which Lord Oxford’s manuscripts were procured for £10,000, to which the King added others; and since the above period, vast numbers of interesting things have been placed there,—Sir William Hamilton’s discoveries, a vast variety of valuable medals, fossils, minerals, manuscripts, and printed books, together with several Egyptian antiquities, and the late Mr. Townsley’s marbles and bas-reliefs from Italy. The latter were given to the public under the express condition that a proper place should be built for their reception, which has been complied with, and they are now exhibited, with the rest of the Museum, to an admiring people.

Various alterations have taken place in the regulations adopted for the convenience of those who read at the Museum, and the visitors, since 1757, when it was first opened for inspection and study; and it is but justice to say, each was intended well, though till lately it was thought that too many impediments existed in the way of visiting that which was solely intended for the use of the community: at present, however, no such complaint can be made with truth, as any decently dressed persons, presenting themselves at certain hours, are admitted free of every kind of expense. Admission even to the reading room, is attended with no other difficulty than necessarily follows the ascertaining whether the applicant is deserving of the indulgence, or likely to injure the interests of the institution; when there, every facility is afforded him by commodious tables, with pens and ink for writing, and a messenger in waiting to bring him any books he may think proper to select from the vast stores of literature submitted in this generous way to his use.

Colossus,—is a statue of vast or gigantic size. The most eminent of this kind was the Colossus of Rhodes, a brazen statue of Apollo, one of the wonders of the world. It was the workmanship of Chares, a disciple of Lysippus, who spent twelve years in making it; and was at length overthrown by an earthquake, B. C. 224, after having stood about sixty-six years. Its height was a hundred and five feet; there were few people who could encompass its thumb, which is said to have been a fathom in circumference, and its fingers were larger than most statues. It was hollow, and in its cavities were large stones, employed by the artificer to counterbalance its weight, and render it steady on its pedestal.

COCOA-NUT TREES.—Page 571.

THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT.—Page 544.

On occasion of the damage which the city of Rhodes sustained by the above-mentioned earthquake, the inhabitants sent ambassadors to all the princes and states of Greek origin, in order to solicit assistance for repairing it; and they obtained large sums, particularly from the kings of Egypt, Macedon, Syria, Pontus, and Bithynia, which amounted to a sum five times exceeding the damages which they had suffered. But instead of setting up the Colossus again, for which purpose the greatest part of it was given, they pretended that the oracle of Delphos had forbidden it, and converted the money to other uses. Accordingly, the Colossus lay neglected on the ground for the space of eight hundred and ninety-four years, at the expiration of which period, or about the year of our Lord 653 or 672, Moawyas, the sixth caliph, or emperor of the Saracens, made himself master of Rhodes, and afterwards sold the statue, reduced to fragments, to a Jewish merchant, who loaded nine hundred camels with the metal; so that, allowing eight hundred pounds weight for each load, the brass of the Colossus, after the diminution which it had sustained by rust, and probably by theft, amounted to seven hundred and twenty thousand pounds weight. The basis that supported it was of a triangular figure: its extremities were sustained by sixty pillars of marble. There was a winding staircase to go up to the top of it; where might be discovered Syria, and the ships that went to Egypt, in a great looking-glass that was hung about the neck of the statue.

This enormous statue was not the only one that attracted attention in the city of Rhodes. Pliny reckons one hundred other colossuses, not so large, which rose majestically in its different quarters.

Obelisk,—in architecture, is a truncated, quadrangular, and slender pyramid, raised for the purpose of ornament, and frequently charged either with inscriptions or hieroglyphics. Obelisks appear to be of very great antiquity, and to have been first raised to transmit to posterity precepts of philosophy, which were cut in hieroglyphical characters: afterwards they were used to immortalize the great actions of heroes, and the memory of persons beloved and venerated for having performed eminent services to their country.

The first obelisk mentioned in history was that of Rameses, king of Egypt, in the time of the Trojan war, which was forty cubits high; Phuis, another king of Egypt, raised one of fifty-five cubits; and Ptolemy Philadelphus, another of eighty eight cubits, in memory of ArsinoË. Augustus erected one at Rome, in the Campus Martius, which served to mark the hours on an horizontal dial, drawn on the pavement. They were called by the Egyptian priests, the Fingers of the Sun, because they were made in Egypt to serve also as stiles or gnomons, to mark the hours on the ground. The Arabs still call them Pharaoh’s Needles; whence the Italians call them Aguglia, and the French Aiguilles.

The famous obelisks called the Devil’s Arrows, now reduced to three, the fourth having been taken down in the seventeenth century, stand about half a mile from the town of Boroughbridge, to the south-west, in three fields, separated by a lane, nearly two hundred feet asunder, on elevated ground, sloping every way. Mr. Drake urges many arguments for their Roman antiquity, and plainly proves them to be natural, and brought from Plumpton quarries, about five miles off; or from Tekly, sixteen miles off. The cross in the town, twelve feet high, is of the same kind of stone. The easternmost, or highest, is twenty-two feet and a half high, by four broad, and four and a half in girth; the second, twenty-one and a half by fifty-five and a quarter; the third, sixteen and a half by eighty-four. Stukeley’s measures differ. The flutings are cut in the stone, but not through: the tallest stands alone, and leans to the south. Plot and Stukeley affirm them to be British monuments, originally hewn square. Dr. Gale supposed that they were Mercuries, which had lost their heads and inscriptions; but in a manuscript note in his Antoninus, he acknowledges that he was misinformed, and that there was no cavity to receive a bust.

On the north side of Penrith, in the church-yard, are two square obelisks, of a single stone each, eleven or twelve feet high, about twelve inches diameter, and twelve by eight at the sides; the highest about eighteen inches diameter, with something like a transverse piece to each, and mortised into a round base. They are fourteen feet asunder, and between them is a grave, which is inclosed between four semicircular stones, of the unequal lengths of five, six, four and a half, and two feet high, having on the outsides rude carving, and the tops notched. This is called the Giant’s Grave, and ascribed to Sir Evan CÆsarius, who is said to have been as tall as one of the columns, and capable of stretching his arms from one to the other; to have destroyed robbers and wild boars in Englewood forest; and to have had an hermitage, called Sir Hugh’s Parlour.

A little west of these is a stone called the Giant’s Thumb, six feet high, fourteen inches at the base, contracted to ten, which is only a rude cross.

We shall conclude this chapter with a description of a Remarkable Obelisk, near Forres, in Scotland.

About a mile from Forres, on the left-hand side of the road, is a remarkable obelisk, said to be the most stately monument of the Gothic kind in Europe; and supposed to have been erected in memory of the treaty between Malcolm II. and Canute the Great, in 1008. It has been the subject of many able pens; and is thus described by Mr. Cordiner, in a letter to Mr. Pennant: “In the first division, underneath the Gothic ornaments, at the top are nine horses, with their riders, marching forth in order: in the next is a line of warriors on foot, brandishing their weapons, and appear to be shouting for the battle. The import of the attitudes in the third division is very dubious, their expression indefinite. The figures, which form a square in the middle of the column, are pretty complex, but distinct; four sergeants with their halberts, guarding a company, under which are placed several human heads, which have belonged to the dead bodies piled up at the left of the division: one appears in the character of executioner, severing the head from another body; behind him are three trumpeters sounding their trumpets, and before him two pair of combatants fighting with sword and target. A troop of horse next appear, put to flight by infantry, whose first lines have bows and arrows, and the three following swords and targets. In the lowermost division now visible, the horses seem to be seized by the victorious party, their riders beheaded, and the head of their chief hung in chains, or placed in a frame; the others being thrown together beside the dead bodies, under an arched cover. The greatest part of the other side of the obelisk, occupied by a sumptuous cross, is covered over with a uniform figure, elaborately raised, and interwoven with great mathematical exactness. Under the cross are two august personages, with some attendants, much obliterated, but evidently in an attitude of reconciliation; and if the monument was erected in memory of the peace concluded between Malcolm and Canute, upon the final retreat of the Danes, these large figures may represent the reconciled monarchs. On the edge, below the fretwork, are some rows of figures joined hand in hand, which may also imply the new degree of confidence and security that took place after the feuds were composed, which are characterized on the front of the pillar. But to whatever particular transaction it may allude, it can hardly be imagined, that in so early an age of the arts in Scotland, as it must have been raised, so elaborate a performance would have been undertaken, but in consequence of an event of the most general importance; it is therefore surprising, that no more distinct tradition of it arrived at the Æra when letters were known. The height of this monument, called King Sueno’s Stone, above the ground, is twenty-three feet, besides twelve or fifteen feet under ground. Its breadth is three feet ten inches, by one foot three inches in thickness.”