Engraving and full description of the Mosque of Santa Sophia, see the MIRROR, vol. ii. p.p. 473, 486.
3
Mr. Hobhouse has pointed out some remarkable points of similarity between the funereal customs of the Greeks and those of the Irish; in particular, the howling lament, the interrogating the corpse, "Why did you die?" and the wake and feast. "But a more singular resemblance," he adds, "is that which is to be remarked between a Mahommedan and an Irish opinion relative to the same ceremony. When a dead Mussulman is carried on his plank towards the cemetery, the devout Turk runs from his house as the procession passes his door, for a short distance relieves one of the bearers of the body, and then gives up his place to another, who hastens to perform the same charitable and holy office. No one who has been in Ireland, but must have seen the peasants leave their cottages or their work, to give a temporary assistance to those employed in bearing the dead to the grave an exertion by which they approach so many steps nearer to Paradise."
4
"Sultan Mahmoud's horse was actually interred in the cemetery of Scutari, under a dome supported by eight pillars."
