The author of
Anastasius gives the following vivid description of this extraordinary
spot:--
"A dense and motionless cloud of stagnant vapours ever shrouds these
dreary realms. From afar, a chilling sensation informs the traveller that
he approaches their dark and dismal precincts; and as he enters them, an
icy blast, rising from their inmost bosom, rushes forth to meet his breath,
suddenly strikes his chest, and seems to oppose his progress. His very
horse snuffs up the deadly effluvia with signs of manifest terror, and,
exhaling a cold and clammy sweat, advances reluctantly over a hollow
ground, which shakes as he treads it, and loudly re-echoes his slow and
fearful step. So long and so busily has time been at work to fill this
chosen spot--so repeatedly has Constantinople poured into this ultimate
receptacle almost its whole contents--that the capital of the living,
spite of its immense population, scarcely counts a single breathing
inhabitant for every ten silent inmates of this city of the dead.
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