kindly received, a room being set apart for us, and an old woman busying herself in making some of the thin cakes which go by the name of bread. On our part, gathering together a few sticks, we also lit a fire, and roasted our solitary bird, which was divided into equal shares-a leg, wing, and breast each. The next morning, when the Colonel awoke me, it was so dark that for a moment I argued the question as to its being daybreak; but I was overruled on this point, and not being troubled with baggage, or by a lengthy toilette, having in default of beds slept in our clothes, we were soon on our way, without troubling the sleeping villagers with any ceremonious adieux. We walked two dreary hours, before a long line of light, on the eastern horizon, announced the break of morn, and at the same time displayed a tolerably large village not far from us. Tempted by the latent idea of a cheering cup of coffee, we directed our steps thither, and found a boy just aroused to let out the cattle, who pointed out to us the sheik's house, or public oda. It is necessary to mention here, that the occurrences related in these pages, took place shortly after the arrival of the Euphrates Expedition on the coast of Syria, and that the Colonel's stock of native languages consisted chiefly of Arabic, while we were now roving in a country of Turks, of whose language we neither of us, at that time, knew scarcely a word. Walking unceremoniously up stairs, we opened a door, and entered a large room, at one end of which were the dying embers of a fire, while the raised divan on each side, and even the central space between, were covered with turbaned gentlemen, fast asleep, after the legitimate Muhammedan fashion, with their heads towards Mecca. We had to step cautiously round one head, and then over another body, before we could reach the fire-side, when putting our guns in the corner, we began to labour at the revivification of the ashes. The noise, however, made by our entrance had awakened several of the sleepers, who one after another began to assume a semi-erect position, yawningly rolling the fallen folds of the turban round their lazy heads, and interchanging all the while glances of surprise and distrust. We attempted to be civil and make explanations; but this, as they could not understand us, only made matters worse, and them more impudent; and I soon after observed one, who had been sleeping in the middle of the floor, and who, like the rest, was armed with pistols and dagger, steal round the stool on which the Colonel had seated himself, and drawing his dagger make signs first at the Colonel's back, and then to my side of the fire-place. At the same moment, the Colonel called out to me in a sharp quick manner to take my gun, for he had observed a similar proceeding going on in my rear. The call was obeyed with an alacrity equal to the emergency, and in a second's time we were both on foot, our guns in our hands; and our antagonists retreating a few steps, at this sudden movement, we cleared a way through the room, gained the door, thence the stairs, and in the lapse of a minute were on our road again, but without a cup of coffee. Daylight had now really broken, the morning was clear and frosty, and we found ourselves approaching more closely the rugged rampart of the high mountain chain that was always by our side. Passing over a few wooded hills, we came to a more open and expansive valley, watered by a tributary to the Urlinjah, somewhat cultivated, with cottages here and there, and a mansion-like looking residence in the distance. We succeeded, by frequently-repeated signs of amity, in getting near a shepherd, who had fled at our first approach, and from him we learnt that this was a country residence of Melangena Oghlu, a Turkoman chieftain, whose name we were familiar with, as the family have long, under both Osmanli and Egyptian rule, held the situation of governors of Adanah. Thither, then, we bent our steps, and found, as usual, a large square building, without windows on the outside, and entered by a solitary porch and gateway. The groundfloor was used merely for stables &c., and the first and only floor above was divided into suites of rooms, comprising harem, divan khaneh, &c., separated at regular distances by talars, or rooms, open in front, and all communicating together by an open balcony that ran round the interior. The servants, with some hesitation, shewed us into a receiving-room, and a short time afterwards, by their master's orders, brought us a repast of bread, milk, and the sweet juice of the grape. After this, we were conducted before the chieftain, who received us in a talar, surrounded by his attendants. We endeavoured to explain our position, and obtain a guide for Sis, but could not make ourselves understood. A Frank who was in the chieftain's service was sent for, but he turned out to be a Russian, and to the surprise of all present, we could not interchange a sentence. The Colonel had some few papers about him in Turkish, but they did not appear to have any effect, and, at length, we departed as we came together with our compass. The morning's walk was destined to be more cheerful; at starting, there was some cultivation and open country, and for a time, even a visible pathway. After little more than a couple of hours' walk, we came to a village, where we visited the sheik, and letting it be understood that we came from Melangena Oghlu, we got a cup of coffee, and obtained a guide to a neighbouring village, which we reached before mid-day, and past which rolled the deep and unfordable waters of the Sihun. We were delayed a short time to be ferried over, and then we advanced into a deserted wooded country, the counterpart of what we had travelled through the day before. Our afternoon's walk was long and laborious; not the less so from having been on foot since two hours before sunrise. We were very silent; the walk was too long and continuous to keep up much conversation, and the mind was too earnestly bent on the obstacles that presented themselves at each moment, in an increased impenetrability of the jungle, or sheets of water, or broken cliffs, that now and then crossed our pathway. Without stopping to consult, or interchanging an idea on the subject, the eye was constantly and actively employed weighing the comparative facilities of the different lines which would carry us on, without losing the definite direction marked out by the compass:-a break in the copse seemed to promise well, but it was backed by a shingly cliff of crumbling rock; a water-course offered facilities, but it terminated at the loftiest part of a distant range of hills; sometimes a tacit diversity of opinion would manifest itself, by one moving in one direction, the other, in another; but the separations that ensued were brief, for our direction was the same. Little occurred to relieve the monotony of our journey. Here and there, a snake, throwing its pliant whorls round a helpless lizard, diverted our attention; and a jackal, stealing from its covert, would be followed by the short, smart click of the cocking gun-but we met with no game. There were not, however, wanting some natural beauties to charm us on our stealthy progress. The rippling of the clear crystal brook, beneath groves of brilliant oleander, was ever a relief. The chameleon, green on the leaves of the gorgeous flowering rose-bay, brown on the fragile tamarisk, and light-coloured on the sunny bank, was a frequent source of interest. The sleepy hollows of the forest often revealed pools of water, so still, silent, and dark, overshadowed by motionless alder and jasmine trees, and watched by a lone, black heron-altogether so perfect within themselves, as to look more like composition than reality. Then again, from the steeps of some adjacent height, the wide expanse of hill and wood, uninterrupted by fallow, or the curl of cottage smoke, and except when limited by the snow-clad mountain chain, trending away to the extreme verge of the horizon, gave an impression of vastness, that, in our position, was almost sublime. The sun was setting on the second day of our long march, the character of the country remained the same, the difficulties of progress were in no way diminished, but a village of huts was perceptible in the distance, nearer to the foot of the mountains. Before us, a wide and extensive valley, bounded by low hills, and covered with dense, unbroken jungle, stretched away almost as far as the eye could reach. The Colonel put it to me, whether we should go into the valley or turn off to the huts. I looked in vain for anything like a cottage that we could reach in our direction, before it would be dark; and not caring for a supperless and shelterless night in the jungle, gave my vote in favour of the village, which we were not long in nearing. Emerging from a wooded glade below, we came upon a circumscribed green platform, on which lay the sheep and cattle gathered in for the night round the mud and hurdle cottages, and guarded by fierce dogs, through whom it was almost as venturesome for a man, as for a wolf or jackal, to force his way. Often had we, on entering a Turkoman encampment, to thank our horse, which lifted us above the ground, for exemption from the bites of these ferocious animals; often had I seen the more impatient among us, goaded by their assaults, exchange the whip for his pistols; but such proceedings are dangerous, as the Turkoman values his dog too much to allow it to be hurt without resentment; yet these semi-savages never call their dogs off, but may be seen moving leisurely from tent to tent, or coming out to kill some long serpent that has intruded into the fold, and yet not bestow a look, still less a word, upon a stranger fighting his way against the odds of a dozen dogs at his horse's heels. On the present occasion we were not mounted, and our difficulties thereby were much increased; we hit away, however, with the muzzle of our guns on one side, and the butt end at the other, and entered, without invitation, the first open hut that came in our way. It, must, however, be said to the credit of the Turkomans, that they behaved to us with hospitality. It seems as an understood thing. that if you can get through the ring of dogs, you shall be well received in the tent. Happily it was seldom our fate not to have an avantcourier on such occasions, or, at all events, to be mounted. But here we were, two strangely accoutred and armed men, without horses, guide, or native, with us-unable to speak scarcely a word of the language, and approaching an encampment at nightfall. It would not have been surprising if, under these circumstances, the secluded and often ill-treated peasants, had doubted our objects and intentions-they did not, however, but gave us a room and food and firing. For my part, I was soon at home, and went and smoked a social pipe with the villagers; but hearing the Colonel complain of cold, I rejoined him, and exerted myself in procuring a hurdle door, which our tent wanted very much, after which, we resigned ourselves to sleep. We had walked about sixteen hours that day, and had not to woo long the reluctant friend of the idle. The Colonel slept so well, that we did not start the next morning until about an hour before daybreak-but we were refreshed and vigorous; for light diet and exercise gives health and strength in Taurus as well as at Grafenberg. Our muscles had become firmer by practice, and we trod the earth with an elastic, buoyant step; the horizon of the eve did not now appear so remote, and even the jungle itself was no longer so formidable; the delicate clematis was torn, in our onward progress, from its attachments; the wild vine, buckthorn, and brambles -the lianes of the East-and the trailing and intertwining plants of the country, presented obstacles that were now almost disregarded; it was only the sharp spurs of the Christ-thorn, and the more sturdy prickly oak, that still set us at defiance. On and on we sped, however, till near noon, when ascending an eminence that skirted our way, we perceived to our infinite delight, that we were approaching a level, uniform, grassy plain, that stretched away to the far horizon, only interrupted by two or three castle-bearing knolls of rock. We recognised in a moment the plains of Cilicia— the continuation of those of Adanah and Tarsus, and we felt as if all our evils were at an end. We knew it would be a pleasure to walk on that soft, downy Turkish carpet, with no jungle to oppose, and with such an expansive view before us that there could no longer be any fears or doubts as to the point of our destination, could we once get that fairly indicated. We started, with renewed hopes and additional vigour; but there were still many ups and downs, many wooded hills and tangled vales to be crossed, ere we reached the plain. In one of the latter of these we came suddenly upon a small Turkoman encampment, guarded, as before, by dogs; but we made our way to the sheik's tent, and were, as usual, well received by these patriarchal wanderers : a black slave being immediately set to work to pound-which they do with a monotonous semi-musical beat- the coffee, without which no stranger departs. Liberated from the ceremonious restraint of the sheik's greatness and generosity, we were pointed out, on starting, one of the distant knolls of rock, that lay islanded on the plain, as bearing the Castle of Sis; so we had now nothing to do but to make our way thither, without the fear or danger of another night's wandering. Every step that brought the bushes farther apart was a step of joy, and at length we reached the greensward. But the evening's walk was still very long on such uniform level plains, the distance of an object is very deceptive, and then the progress of man is so like that of a caterpillar, while his thoughts precede him like a bird. Then we found a marsh upon our road, which obliged us to turn off, some few additional miles; but at length we reached the limestone rock, which, now that we had neared it, from a knoll on the plain had become a giant hill of a mile or two in length, some eight hundred feet in elevation, and crowned by the ruins of an extensive castle. Turning round this rock, we had to gain its eastern aspect ere we discerned the small but ancient-looking town of Sis, stretching along the foot and up the sides of the hill, and domineered over by the church and monastery of the Armenian Bishopric, which stood half-way between the base of the hill and the castellated heights above. We made our way to the monastery, and claimed hospitality, which was not refused. Passing through a paved court-yard, we were received in a large room with scanty furniture, by three or four resident monks. They were civil and kind to us; and after resting awhile, we went to visit their church-a handsome and solid stone edifice of simple architecture. Nothing could exceed the cleanliness around; part of the buildings were hewn out of the solid rock; the different courts were but terraces on the hill side, and all were flagged and clean as the domestic hearth. This Armenian ecclesiastical site, which rivals in importance the sees of Utchmiadzin and Constantinople, is of great antiquity, having been contemporary with Anazarba, a Byzantine city, where one of the emperors lost his life while boar-hunting, but which was itself destroyed by an earthquake in Justinian's time. The castle and rock of this latter town, covered with magnificent sarcophagi, were visible from the terrace on which we stood, and were soon afterwards visited by It was from these districts, of Anazarba and Sis, and from the stronghold of Kara Sis, or "Black Sis," which the Colonel and myself galloped off to the next day, and which is shut up among the mountains to our rear, that the Armenians came down and plundered the Crusaders on the plains of Cilicia. us. We had just returned from a hasty exploration of the sad specimens of art and gaudy ornaments, which disgraced rather than embellished so neatly built and solemn an edifice as the Armenian church really was, when our dragoman, Yusof Saada, made his appearance. He had heard in the town of the arrival of two Franks at the monastery, and imagining it might be us, had come to make inquiries. We were sufficiently impolite to forego the no-doubt simple repast, which the monks had been now some time preparing, and hastened away to our friends, who, although mounted, and accompanied by a guide, had only arrived the same day. THE SICK CHILD. BY THE HON. JULIA AUGUSTA MAYNARD. A WEAKNESS seizes all my limbs-I struggle to be strong- I would I might abide on earth till spring hath brought the flowers I would that I might breathe my last 'mid April's balmy showers! For now the wind is blowing cold-so very cold and sad; I gaze upon the smiling sun when there is not a cloud I shall never see its brightness when I'm wrapp'd within my shroud; But I shall view a brighter scene when I mingle with the sod For I shall see unblinded then the glory of my God! It may be so-I cannot tell-I yet may last till June- |