_Altar Curtains._--“But, ye priests, as the sacred laws command you, spread out the curtain dipped in the red dye of the Sidonian shell and cover the sacred table. Unfold the veils (_kaluptrai_) hanging on the four sides of silver, and show to the countless crowd a multitude of beautiful designs in gold of skilful handiwork. On one side is cunningly wrought the form of Christ. And this was not worked by skilful hands plying the needle on the stuff, but by the web, the produce of the worm[80] from distant lands, changing its coloured threads of many shades. A garment shimmering with gold, like the rays of rosy-fingered dawn, flashes down to the divine knees, and a chiton, deep red from the Tyrian shell dye, covers the right shoulder beneath its well-woven web. The veiling upper robe has slipped away, and pulled up across the side it only covers the left shoulder, while the forearm and the hand are bare. He seems to point the fingers of the right hand, as if preaching the words of Life, and in the left hand He holds the book of the divine message,--the book that tells what the Messiah accomplished when his foot was on the earth. And the whole robe shines with gold; for on it a thin gold thread is led through the web, as if a fair chain was laid on the cloth in a groove or channel and bound with silken thread by sharp needles. And on either side stand the two messengers of God--Paul, full of divine wisdom, and also the mighty doorkeeper of the Gates of Heaven, binding with both heavenly and earthly chains. One holds the book pregnant with sacred words, and the other the form of a cross on a staff of gold. And both the cunning web has clothed in robes of silver white, and over their sacred heads rises upward a temple of gold, with triple apses fixed on four columns of gold. “Now on the extreme borders of the curtain shot with gold, unspeakable art has figured the works of mercy of our city’s kings; here one sees hospitals for the sick, there sacred fanes, while on either side are displayed the miracles of Christ; such is the grace and beauty of the work. “But on the other curtains you see the kings of the earth on one side with their hands joined to those of the Virgin, on the other side with those of Christ, and all is cunningly wrought by the threads of the woof with the sheen of a golden warp. Thus is everything adorned with splendour. Thus may you see all that fills the eyes with wonder.