These sarcophagi are stone caskets of great size and weight composed of two pieces, the chest and lid. The chest is hewn out of one solid block of marble and the lid of another. The sarcophagi range from ten to twelve feet in length, from five to six feet in width, and from six to eight feet in height. One of the stone coffins, made of black Egyptian marble and named the Tabnith, contained, when found, the dried up mummy of an ancient king, Tabnith, who lived four centuries before the time of Christ. An inscription on this in Egyptian hieroglyphics pronounced a curse upon the man who should despoil the tomb, but the dreadful warning was not deciphered until the casket reached the Museum. Another sarcophagus, called the Satrap's, cut out of Parian marble, somewhat resembles a Grecian temple in form. On the sides are depicted, in marble carvings, a funeral banquet, a governor on his throne, a hunting scene with a lion at bay, a frightened horse dragging its dismounted rider, and many other similar scenes.
"But this, in my opinion, is the most attractive casket in the collection," said the professor as we came to one named the Weepers, on the marble sides of which a master sculptor of ancient times had carved eighteen female forms. "Notice how each figure is portrayed in a different graceful attitude of mourning and how each is a picture of sorrow. And notice, too, the exquisite workmanship of the frieze with its ornamentation of a hundred small figures in hunting scenes."
WE FED THE PIGEONS AT THE PIGEON MOSQUE.
Near to the Weepers is the sarcophagus known as the Alexander, the most famous in the collection, by many considered the most beautiful in the world, and in the opinion expressed by the American Consul in Constantinople, "worth crossing the ocean to see." The sculptures on this represent a battle between Greeks and Persians with many figures and incidents of battle, and elaborate hunting scenes with many details delicately worked out. These four sarcophagi, and the one named the Lycian on which Amazons in four horse chariots hunting lions are delineated, attracted the most attention from the tourists, but there were scores of other sarcophagi in the collection almost as interesting.
In another part of the Museum, called the China Pavilion, the noted stone tablet from the Temple of Jerusalem was on exhibition. This tablet, discovered at Jerusalem in the year 1871, originally stood in the Temple enclosure to mark the limit which Gentiles were not allowed to pass. The Greek inscription on the tablet is translated as follows:
"No Gentile may pass beyond the railing into the court round the Temple; he who is caught trespassing will bring death upon himself."
Statues, pottery, porcelain, jewels, and antiquities of various kinds were hurriedly passed by until an exclamation of one of the ladies caused us to pause.
"Look at his eyes," she said, pointing to a bronze statue of Jupiter. "Did you ever see any eyes like that in a statue?"
The eyes of the god were represented by two bright rubies which gave them a very peculiar expression. This room contained many exquisite pieces of bronze work; one representing Hercules was particularly fine in execution.