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"This is the first time you have ever seen your cousins, I think, Lennox ? Don't you think Rebecca looking remarkably well? tall girl for her age, eh? Since Miss Tulloch has left us she has not devoted herself to her piano as much as she ought to; but now that Miss Strangways has come she must set to with a will, and then, Lennox, if you have a taste for music, I fancy you will have a treat."

"My love for music is a passion; so that your playing to me, Rebecca, will really be a treat," said Lennox, smiling on his cousin.

This reply caused his aunt's scheming old heart to throb with hope. "If he is so fond of music, and takes to dangling over the music-leaves of an evening," she said to herself, "it will likely end in something between 'Becca and him.”

Rebecca looked uncomfortable, not to say displeased, at her mother's words, and, after shaking hands rather stiffly with Lennox, she walked away to her accustomed seat in a recess of the room. Phoebe eyed her cousin with great curiosity, and smiled cordially as he kissed her; but her disappointment was great on seeing no governess.

"Mamma," she exclaimed, "hasn't Miss Strangways come?" "To be sure she has, but probably I forgot to tell her that the custom in this house is to have worship punctually at half-past eight. You'd better un up to her room, Phoebe, and tell her we are waiting."

"Little, you may be sure, Mary, cares an Episcopalian whether she attends the family altar or not," growled the grandmother, who had just hobbled to her arm-chair.

Phoebe knocked at the door of the governess's bedroom, and a pleasant voice said, "Come in."

Phoebe opened the door, and, without saying anything, stood staring at her new preceptress, who lay smiling and snug beneath the blankets.

"Are you one of my new pupils ?" asked Miss Strangways, with a charm of manner, which captivated Phoebe at once, and made her mentally contrast it with Miss Tulloch's austere deportment."

"Yes," she said, advancing to the bedside. "Miss Strangways, are you fond of driving?''

"Well, my dear, I am, on the whole, especially in this kind of weather," said the governess, laughing. "Why do you ask?" "Because 'Becca and I have a donkey-carriage, and a donkey called 'Solomon,' and we often take a drive in the afternoon; out of school-hours, you know."

"I see.

And you would like me to drive with you? It is

very kind of you to ask me. I will go with pleasure, you may be

sure."

Phoebe's countenance fell a little at this.

"She

"Miss Tulloch never drove," she said thoughtfully. always walked and let us pick her up on the way home. Miss Tulloch was frightfully thin, you know, and had to walk a great deal to keep her circulation warm. They say fat people are fondest of driving. Are you a thin or a fat person, Miss Strangways?" "What a funny girl you are, to be sure!" cried the governess, laughing violently at the earnest way in which the question was put. "You must judge for yourself when you see me dressed. I think you will find that I am neither the one nor the other, but between the two. Come and kiss me, and tell me your name. I am sure we shall like each other."

"I like you already, Miss Strangways," said the pupil, as she flew to the embrace of the governess; and she thought to herself that driving Miss Strangways would be very different from driving Miss Tulloch.

"My name is Phoebe, and my sister's is Rebecca."

"Both Scripture names," observed the governess.

"Yes, mamma and grandma wished us to be called after some Bible people; so 'Becca got her name from the Old Testament, and I from the New."

"At this moment Mrs. Brass's sharp voice called from the bottom of the stair, Phoebe'!"

"Oh, I say, Miss Strangways !" cried the little maid in consternation, "I quite forgot to tell you mamma sent me up to say that we were waiting for you to come down to prayers.'

"To prayers?" said the governess, aghast.

up yet. When do you breakfast, dear?" "Immediately after prayers."

"And how long do prayers generally take?"

Why, I am not

"Oh, quite three-quarters of an hour," said Phoebe, sighing. "I think I could manage to dress in that time. Will you tell your mother I am very sorry to be late; but I was so tired when I went to bed, and then that frightful accident has haunted me ever since it happened."

"Becca and I were afraid you were killed. You must tell us all about it by-and-bye, Miss Strangways," said Phoebe, as she hurried downstairs.

"I though as much! what could you expect?" said the grandmother grimly, as Phoebe gave her mother the message.

"She's not very fat, and she's not very thin, but awfully nice," whispered Phoebe, as she seated herself beside Rebecca.

"Phoebe!" cried Mrs. Brass, as she opened the family Bible and commenced the 18th Psalm.

RECENT RESEARCHES

RESEARCHES IN CILICIA.

THE ancient province of Cilicia, constituting the Pashalik of Adana, uuder the Turks, is the nearest coast of the mainland off Cyprus, now occupied by England. It has been more or less explored by many travellers, and the rich and fertile portion, which constituted Cilicia Campestris, was trigonometrically surveyed by the officers of the Euphrates expedition, so far as to bring the survey of Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort in Karamania, in conjunction with the Bay of Antioch. The comparative geography of its passes and gates, so renowned in past history, has been detailed in the "Journal of the Royal Geographical Society," (vol. viii. p. 185) and its antiquities discussed in a work entitled "Lares and Penates; or Cilicia and its Governors, published by Ingram, Cooke, & Co., 1853.

A good deal has been done however in recent times, towards unravelling the geography and history of this most interesting province, and now that, by the occupation of Cyprns, we shall be thrown into immediate contact with it, a few words concerning these additions made to our previous knowledge, will have a chance of meeting with more attention than they otherwise would have done.

A welcome addition to what was previously known, appears in the Bulletin de le Société de Geographie for January and February, 1878, by M. C. Favre & Mandrot, illustrated by a map on a large scale, which, however, leaves much to be desired, since it leaves as a blank marked as Regions, Montagneuses Non-Explorées the countries traversed and laid down in the time of the Euphrates expedition, between Kulak Boghaz or "the Narrow Strait," and Sis, and between Sis and Marash. On the other hand, Messrs. Favre & Mandrot have by their visit to Topra Kalessi or "rock castle," Asmaniya and Tchordaa Kalessi, done much towards elucidating the vexed question of the pass over Amanus, by which Darius was enabled to get to the rear of Alexander the Great's army, and they have been apparently the first to ascertain that the celebrated Ailan Kalahsi or the "Castle of the Serpents," is separated from the other heights of the Jebel Nûr or "Mountain of Light," to the south, by the bed of the Jihan Su or Pyramus. "Curious thing," remark the travellers-" the river instead of turning round the point of the chain, traverses it by a kind of defile which separates the rock of Ailan from the rest of the chain,

and leaves only a narrow pass between the mountain and the water." The illusion is perfect, for owing to this abrupt turn of the river, whether viewed from the east or west, the castle seems to stand at the extremity of the ridge, and has been thus represented in the map attached to "Lares and Penates; or Cilicia and its Governors, (1853).

Starting from Alexandretta, the ruiuous old gateway, known to sailors as Jonas's Pillars, attracted the attention of Messrs. Favre & Mandrot, as it does of all travellers, whether coming from the north or the south. The peaks of Mount Amanus approach nearest to the Gulf of Issus at the point, and there can be no doubt from ruins on the shore and at the foot of the hills, that the space between the two was enclosed by two walls through the southern of which, the gate constituted the highway. Neither our travellers, nor M. Langlois, noticed these fragments of ruin, although they surmise the existence of a wall, yet they are, as also the stunted trunks of palms, rarely met with in North Syria.

Messrs. Favre & Mandrot say all these passages of Amanus were known in antiquity as the Syrian pulai, pylæ or gates. But it has been shewn in a Memoir on the Cilician and Syrian Gates in vol. 8 of "Journal of Royal Geographical Society,' that the different passes or gates, known in actual times as the Kulak Boghaz or "Narrow Strait," Kara Kapu or "Black Gate," Sakal Tutan or "Jonas's Pillars, and the pass of Baylan, were known to the historians of the expedition of Cyrus, and of Alexander the Great, as well as to the Greek and Roman Geographers, by different names, all easily identified. The Assyrian Gates of Willebrand of Aldenbourg were the pass by Asmaniya. The ruins of Jonas's Pillars, are depicted in the same memoir, present nothing but the sides. Messrs. Favre and Mandrot could not determine if they belonged to Greek or Roman times, but consi lering the antiquities of the pass-the Gates of Cilicia and Syria of Xenophon-and the gates-par-eminence of Quintus Curtius and Arrian-they seem to have been of Grecian origin,—probably of the time of the Macedonians or Seleucids. In the middle ages they were known as Passus Portellae or Portella, and Willebrand describes the arch as existing in his time, and being of white marble. They became toll-gates in the time of the Armenians. Both Langlois and Favre and Mandrot notice the river Kersus, now called Sari Saki, with a village of same name, and which we have identified with the Andricus of Pliny. Both names having allusion to crocodiles and crocodile-worship.

Above the village are the ruins of a medieval castle, for which Favre and Mandrot could only get the name of Sakal Tutan, but

which Langlois correctly called Merkez, as it is designated in the Itinerary from Constantinople to Mekka. Sakal Tutan meaning

the "Beard Catcher," and used figuratively for a difficult pass, or a pass with tolls, is applied to the gates generally. It was known to Willebrand by the name of Canamella, as also as Castellum regis nigrum, and further as Nigrinum. This latter name was corrupted by the Armenians into Neghertz, from wheuce its modern name of Merkez. In the times of Paul Lucas its iron gates were still extant. A summer pass led hence over the mountains, named Bagras-Beli-Boghaz, and the Syrian side of this pass was defended by a fortress called Gastim, by Willebrand, and which was occupied by the Templars, who were first driven out of it by Leon II., and re-established by the kings of Armenia, were finally expelled in 1268 by Malik al Mausus, Prince of Hamah. On our visit to the ruins of this last-mentioned castle we found some arrows, which belonged to the Middle Ages. This was in winter time, and when it was proposed to the villagers to cross the mountains at that point, they disposed of the suggestion by intimating that it was impassable even to birds! It is difficult indeed to understand why such a pass should have been ever used, except when the more open and easy, and not distant pass, by Baylan, was in hostile bands.

Of Bayas, ancient Baiae, Favre and Mandrot merely intimate that it is a village on a little river, with two castles and a garrison. Langlois is still more reticent. None evidently visited the castle on the sea shore, which is at some distance from the town; and the Bazar and Mosque-the first being a covered continuation of the highway from Constantinople to Mekka-constitute one of the most compact little specimens of Mussulman architecture to be met with in Syria.

Passing Shuk Marzivan, the Deli Chai or "mad river," the renowned Pinarus and Erzun with its orange groves, Favre and Mandrot arrived at the remarkable basaltic ruins, known as Kara Kaya or Black Rock," and which with Captain Mansell they indentify with Issus, afterwards Nicopolis, according to some. But the priority of discovery and of identification lies, we believe, in the "Memoir" previously quoted, and which was published in 1838. There is a difficulty, however, connected with this identification, which, as Messrs. Favre and Mandrot reserve minute archælogical details to a future publication, it will suffice to notice here. M. Landrot and others have sought for Issus on the Pinarus, where fragments of ruin of a different order-chiefly marble blocks-are to be met with. This, because Quintus Curtius describes Alexander as raising altars at Nicopolis, on the banks of the Pinarus, to celebrate his great victory, and Nicopolis