road near the Krisnaya retchka, ' red river,' called by the natives Tzkall-tzytell, ' red water,' a tributary to the Rion, so named from the reddish colour of the soil through which it courses; but our man in authority quickly caused the way to be cleared. The approach to the monastery is steep and rugged, and although only 6^ miles from the town, it took us an hour and a half to do the distance in a carriage with two good horses.
The monastery of Ghelaty, within a high walled enclosure, includes the Episcopal church of Genath, a chapel dedicated by King Geoi^e II. to his patron saint, and a mortuary chapel. The name, according to M. Brosset, is from the Greek '^tvtSiMiimv, for it was consecrated to the nativity of the Virgin. It is not known with any degree of certainty when and by whom the church was first founded, but it appears to have been restored by David II. Agiunas/tenSeiy, ' the Restorer,' ' who was king of Karthly and Abhase, 1089-1125. In the thirteenth century it was sacked by Arghouny, who overran Imeritia in his search for David V. at the time under Mussulman suzerainty, after which it was again restored and in 1519 or 1529 raised to a bishopric
The church is a handsome edifice of lai^e blocks of a yellowish sandstone; the huge piece of masonry at the south-west corner is pointed out as having been placed in its position by King David himself, for he was a giaiit There are no inscriptions and little ornamentation on the outside, but the roof, neatly laid with sheets of iron painted a light green, give the edifice a refreshing appearance.
We entered at the north door and found the walls covered with paintings in fresco. Above the doorway are full-length portraits of David 'the Restorer,' who bears in his hands a model of the ' ' Literally in Geoi^ian 'a builder'; shtneba ii 'a building,' and asheuAa ' to build.'
t, Google church; of the Patriarch Effdemon, Queen Helena, George II., Queen Roussoud^n (of the dynasty of Tcharvatchydze) and Bagrat her son; other paintings are scenes from Scripture history Over the altar is a grand Byzantine mosaic, the gift of the P^mperor Alexis I, (Comnenus) in the eleventh century, the founder and endowcr of the monasteries of Koutloumousy and Pantocratorous at Athos; it represents, the Virgin and Child, with the Archangels Michael and Gabriel on either side, and over all is an inscription in Greek.
Without the nimbus of the Mother of God on this mosaic, are the monc^rams in Greek of her attributes |(h*P and (5v- On the silver seal of government at Mount Athos, whereon Christ is represented with a roll in the left hand and in the act of blessing with the right, inside an aureola within a larger aureola which encloses the figure of Mary, the monograms are thus, MP and ot);' in the Greek Church they are usually reproduced thus, ^ and fpT. whereas in Russia the images that represent the Virgin and Child bear the Sclavonic characters MiP and ""CTx-. Mosaics similar to that at Ghebty would probably be brought to light at the Mosque of St. Sophia, were the whitewash coatings of ages removed.
The ghcromanach Gherasim, a grave and taciturn man, who curiously enough was styled the cconomos* (see i Cor. iv. 2, Greek text), exhibited the treasures and relics, but no ancient MSS., of which he assured us there were none. Had we taken the precaution to obtain an jfarder at Koutals lo see the charters and books, we should not have experienced the disappointment felt at the
• hcnopvphit ChrHUnm, M. Didron. Paris, 1843,
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
by Google priest's reply. According to M. Brosset, the oldest charter at Gbelaty is dated 183, i.e. 1495 A.D., the twelfth year of the reign of Alexander II., king of Imeritia.
In the treasury is preserved a superb specimen of Byzantine art, being the crown of the kings of Imeritia, a high bonnet of cloth of gold woven with subject^ from sacred history, prolifically adorned with pearls and rich jewels. There are regal and ecclesiastical robes also in cloth of gold, embroidered with pearls and precious stones in marvellous profusion — a huge gold thumb ring, said to have been worn by the gigantic David — several chalices and other vessels, and a curious circular silver-gilt piece of plate, bearing in rcpoussi a representation of St. Jerome astride a lion.