Next in chronological order is the mosque of the _Valideh Atik_—which might be translated as the Old or, more politely, as the Wise Mother. It is more popularly known as Top Tashi, or Cannon Stone. In a steep street near the mosque lies a big stone cannon-ball from which the quarter may take its name. However, the Wise Mother was a certain Nour Banou, Lady of Light, who lies buried beside her husband, Sultan Selim II, in the courtyard of St. Sophia. Her mosque stands on the second story of Scutari, and its two minarets and contrasting cypresses, with their encompassing arcade and massive-walled dependencies, make the most imposing architectural group in the town. The mosque has recently undergone a thorough restoration, which is rarely a very happy proceeding. Luckily the restorers left the painted wooden ceilings that decorate the under-side of the gallery—or so much of them as had not been painted out before. There is also an elaborately perforated marble _mimber_, whose two flags would seem to indicate that a church once stood here. But what is best is the tiled recess of the _mihrab_. The tile makers of Nicæa had evidently not begun to lose their cunning in the day of the Lady of Light—unless she borrowed from some other place. In any case, the two panels at right angles to the _mihrab_ are so high an ornament of my native town that Scutari deserves to be celebrated for them alone. They seem to me to rank among the finest tiles in Constantinople, though Murray passes them by without a word. In Turkish eyes this mosque has a further interest as being one of the spots known to have been visited by Hîdîr or Hîzîr, lord of the Fountain of Life. In the porch of the mosque hangs an illuminated manuscript commemorating this illustrious visit, and near it are three holes by which Hîzîr is supposed to have moved the mosque in token of his presence. [Illustration: Tiles in the mosque of the Valideh Atik] [Illustration: Chinili Jami] The third princess to build in Scutari was one whose acquaintance we have already made, the great _valideh_ Kyössem. Her mosque also stands on the upper terrace, at the head of the long corridor known as Chaoush Deresi. The Turks call it Chinili Jami, which really means the China Mosque. It is a tiled mosque, much smaller than Rüstem Pasha, faced on the inside and along the porch with blue and white tiles of not so good a period. Between 1582, when the Lady of Light tiled her _mihrab_, and 1643 something had evidently happened in Nicæa. As a matter of fact, I believe the tiles came from Kütahya. Nevertheless the mosque is charming, there is the quaintest pagoda-like fountain in one corner of the court, and the main gate of the yard composes with the fountain and the mosque and the cypresses around it in the happiest possible way. [Illustration: The fountains of the Valideh Jedid]