Vol.I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

184 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.IV.
same plan is found in some Anatolian churches, as
at Cassaba in Lycia : also in the church of St. Irene
at Constantinople : and in many early
churches at
Rome, S. Niccolo in Carcere, S. Pietro in Vincoli,
Sta. Agnese without the walls, and others : though
in some cases the original arrangement has been
obscured by later additions or alterations.
Over the aisles and narthex runs a continuous
gallery or triforium, which originally served as the
place for women at the service. On the north side
it stops short at the choir, forming a kind of transept,
which however does not project beyond the north
aisle on plan. On the south side of the church the
triforium is prolonged over the choir and over the
south side-chapel. The gallery is flat-roofed : while
the nave is covered with a pointed roof with framed
principals like that at Abu-'s-Sifain. In the Coptic
roofs no metal is used, but the tenons are pinned
through by wooden bolts. Outside, the roof of Abu
Sargah is plastered over with cement showing the
king-posts projecting above the ridge-piece. Over
.the central part of the choir and over the haikal the
roof changes to a wagon-vaulting : it is flat over the
north transept, and a lofty dome overshadows the
north aisle-chapel. There is a second dome visible
from outside above the east end of the south tri-
forium ;
though
whether a chapel directly over the
south aisle-chapel ends the triforium, I cannot say.
The churlish priest of Abu Sargah vowed there was
none but he ; angrily refused to let me look, and
neither soft words nor hard, neither fiat of patriarch
nor glitter of money, could conquer his stubborn
resistance. One may be sure however that a chapel
of the kind once existed, even though now it has