the saints, with inscriptions in very early Greek. It
is set in pure gold, richly worked, and was a gift from the Empress or
imperial Princess Pulcheria. Then there was an invaluable shrine for the
head of St. John the Baptist, whose bones and another of his heads are
in the cathedral at Genoa. St. John Lateran also boasts a head of St
John, but that may have belonged to St. John the Evangelist. This shrine
was the gift of Neagulus, Waywode or Hospodar of Wallachia: it is about
two feet long and two feet high, and is in the shape of a Byzantine
church; the material is silver-gilt, but the admirable and singular
style of the workmanship gives it a value far surpassing its intrinsic
worth. The roof is covered with five domes of gold; on each side it has
sixteen recesses, in which are portraits of the saints in niello, and at
each end there are eight others. All the windows are enriched in
open-work tracery, of a strange sort of Gothic pattern, unlike anything
in Europe. It is altogether a wonderful and precious monument of
ancient art, the production of an almost unknown country, rich, quaint,
and original in its design and execution, and is indeed one of the most
curious objects on Mount Athos; although the patera of the Princess
Pulcheria might probably be considered of greater value. There were many
other shrines and reliquaries, but none of any particular interest.

I next proceeded to the library, which contained not much less than a
thousand manuscripts, half on paper and half on vellum. Of those on
vellum the most valuable were a quarto Evangelistarium, in uncial
letters, and in beautiful preservation; another Evangelistarium, of
which three fly-leaves were in early uncial Greek; a small quarto of the
Dialogues of St. Gregory, [Greek: dialogoi Gregoriou tou theologou ],
not in uncial letters, with twelve fine miniatures; a small quarto New
Testament, containing the Apocalypse; and some magnificent folios of the
Fathers of the eleventh century; but not one classic author. Among the
manuscripts on paper were a folio of the Iliad of Homer, badly written,
two copies of the works of Dionysius the Areopagite, and a multitude of
books for the church-service. Alas! they would part with nothing. The
library was altogether a magnificent collection, and for the most part
well preserved: they had no great number of printed books. I should
imagine that this monastery must, from some fortunate accident, have
suffered less from sp