This day I attended the funeral of Signior _Demetrasco_, chief _dragoman_ to the English ambassador, who tho by faith a Latin, yet by birth was of the Greek nation. And accordingly in the way of burying proper to this latter, I observed the manner of carrying the corps of the deceased barefaced, clothed in his late usual habit, and supported by four of his nearest relations; who were followed by women slaves, hired to make a hideous pomp, by tearing their hair, extorting forced and counterfeit tears, and repeating in a continual loud and frightful lamentation, ὦ ἀφέντη μου; that is, _O my master!_ April xv. I paid a visit to Signior _Rombarts_, a gentile and ingenious merchant of the Dutch nation, at his house in _Curuchesmée_, a village on the Thracian _Bosphorus_. Here I observed a _sophá_ room remarkably adorned after the richest Turkish fashion, the roof formed into a cupola, and the gilding and painting of the whole so splendidly curious, that it amounted at first to the sum of four thousand _hungárs_, or two thousand pounds sterling. April xvii. I took the opportunity of passing over the chanel to _Constantinople_, in company of Signior _Wright_, the Dutch minister of this place, with whom I visited the _mint_; the _Grand Signior’s_ lions; and the _mosques_ of _Sultan Solymán_, _Sultan Bajazet_, _Sultan Achmét_, and the _Validée_. That of _Bajazet_ and the _Validée_ are adorned only with two _minarées_, that of _Solymán_ with four, and that of _Achmét_ with six. They all much resemble one another, both in the inward and outward figure. They first consist of a spatious court, enriched all round with fair and regular cloisters formed by pillars, some of whose shafts are carved with white marble, some with serpentine stone, and some with porphyry; but all the capitals are of the modern Turkish figure. Next is the body of the _mosque_, covered outwardly with domes, and supported inwardly with four massy pillars, from the tops of which rises a regular cupola, forming the roof of the whole _mosque_. Whoever exactly compares the beauty and grandeur of these several _mosques_, will find that of _Solymán_ more regular, and artificial in the outward frame; that of _Achmét_ more magnificent in the whole, and on the outside more beautiful in the work of the pillars; that of the _Validée_, tho less in bulk and extent than the other two, yet more curious in the inward ornaments and workmanship than either; and that of _Bajazet_, which is the oldest, inferior to the rest both in bulk and beauty, except that some cast pillars, which form the cloisters of the court, consist of a more polite, shining, and pretious stone.