Vol.I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

CH. in.] Dair Abu-s-Sifain. 83
Abu-'s-Sifain is so very rich in pictures that I
think it worth while to give a complete list of them
as they stand, choosing
special description.
the more remarkable for
iii. Passing now from the bare and cold division
for the women, one is at once struck by the magnific^nce
of ornament lavished on the men's section.
The screen between the two is heavy, and of plain
bar-work, but the spandrels of the screen-door are
very delicately carved, and very beautiful. But the
screen between the men's section and the choir the
choir-screen is a most superb and sumptuous piece
of work. It is a solid partition of ebony, inlaid with
carved ivories of the most exquisite workmanship.
The south side of this section, and the north side
from the women's screen to the ambon, or pulpit,
are also bounded by lofty screens. The result is a
beautiful chamber, thirty-one feet long and twentythree
broad, shut in on all sides with screens. A
continuous band of little pictures mounted on the
screens runs round the chamber ; and other pictures
are set above and below, save when the line is
broken for about twelve feet by the ambon, which
stands at the north-east of the nave.
At the south-west corner of the men's section,
whence it is well to start, a little room that is railed
off and placed between two piers is used as a sacristy.
Here the principal vestments are kept. Between
this and the ambon comes the shrine of Abu-'s-
Sifain, an arched recess of gaudily painted woodwork.
The top is square, and mounted with gilt
plates of pierced metal-work. In front hangs a curtain
of the silk and velvet tissue once woven at
Rosetta. The whole reminds one of a small theatre,
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