Vol.I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

58 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. n.
for the left leg is bent at the knee, the foot just
lingering
as it leaves behindward a boulder on which
it has been planted. The large, deep, meditative
eyes give admirably the key to the whole attitude,
which is that of a man arrested in mid-step by some
or divine remembrance. It is a
profound thought
great man communing with his own spirit
in the
wilderness, and finding inspiration.
On the eastern wall before what should be the
north chapel are five more pictures of saints, including
Mari Mina and Abu-'s-Sifain. Next comes a
little detached painting representing a family of five
martyr sons standing in a group, or rather line, with
their mother. The is drawing rude, but the scene is
The Five and their Mother,'
pathetic. It is called '
and bears a date corresponding to about 1 790 A. D.
A date is also fixed for the next picture, 1780 A. D.
It is a representation of Mari Mina, the patron saint
of the church who is honoured ; by a large niche of
woodwork. The shrine contains of course a bolster
of relics ;
but instead of the ordinary spikes or prickets
for candles, before it stands a bronze taper-holder of
very singular and original design. Two winged
dragons or serpents stretched at full length cross
their tails together ; the head is retorted, with the
mouth upwards, and the wings are above the body,
but there is no twist in the dragon's neck as one
would expect. A bar of bronze slightly curved joins
on this bar are thirteen bell-
the dragons above ;
shaped sockets for tapers, and one in each dragon's
mouth and on each wing seventeen in all. The
design is either copied from or copied in the adjoining
Armenian church ; of the two candelabra the
Armenian certainly looks the older, and may date