us our attendant angels-those of the lakes, those of our household.

But the heat of our hot blood was reduced before our excursion was ended more effectually than by any of nature's exhortations, or sermons of divines. We worked out our railway route by the different time-tables, and made up our minds to reach home near midnight.

We had to go from Windermere to Oxenholme, from there to Zebay, thence to Darlington, and catch, with three quarters of au hour to spare, the London mail to the north.

We were disappointed when we found at Windermere that they would not give through tickets for this arrangement, as they do for earlier trains. We could, therefore, only book by stages. This caused annoyance, but no fear. A little apprehension did creep over us when we found the trains keeping bad time, and then, instead of having three quarters of an hour to spare at Darlington, we should only have a few minutes. Even that, however, was of comparative importance, for we were precipitated into the very womb of horrors when we found that our train stopped at Bank Top in Darlington, and would not go on to the main line. Not a cab was near, and we were brought to a loathsome antethesis of our lake-enjoyments by having to take up our quarters in a close, dirty, smoky commercial hotel-which, for fear of libel, we do not name, so fair is its commercial reputation—and, besides, we were right glad to find shelter there.

Next morning we left demure, Quaker Darlington by an early train, thus early exercised in our old knowledge that, as it was said in ancient times, "God made the first garden, Cain the first town." The first clause of the proverb may be applied to the lakes, whilst the latter need never be changed: that, although we have a cheerful faith in nature, we cannot apply it to the ways of man, and, above all, not to his rail-ways.

But now, in the spirit of pure philosophy, we reverse our reasoning. Our lake visits are an abiding pleasure. Amidst all the miseries that attend the inventions of man, whether in moneygetting, reputation-hunting, living in noxious neighbourhoods, or in compulsory study of Bradshaw's-satirically-named--" Guide,” their glories, the pleasing vicissitudes attending our mountain and stream exploration, their various aspects changing with changing light and the seasons, abide a perennial source of joy.

Of our present visit we say that we have seen them in a!l seasons. We have been there with Summer, with Winter, with Autumn,-but, Spring! such as thou wert four years ago! Spring! thou excellest them all.

Keswich we have visited at other seasons, and of it we shall speak in our next.

ASSYRIAN DISCOVERIES.

TEMPLE OF ISTAR-THE ASSYRIAN APHRODITE-KINGS OF CYPRUSTEMPLE OF ADAR AND ISTAR AT IMGUR BEL-TROPHIES OF ASSURNAZIR-PAL.

MR. HORMUSD RASSAM'S latest explorations were carried on, in the first place, on the northern and southern sides of the great mound at Nimrūd. Beginning his excavations in a trench aban. doned by Sir A. H. Layard in 1849, he continued for some yards further east, and happily succeeded in penetrating, and then laying open, the greater proportion of a temple, 150 ft. long, by 90 broad. The altar of this temple was placed, not at the eastern, but at the western, extremity of the building; and on each side of the altar were placed rows of stone seats, extending right and left for some distance. The roof of the temple had been of polished cedar, with tile bosses painted with various patterns, among which was one in the shape of a Maltese cross, the four points of which were occupied by a honeysuckle decoration, as also a conventional form of the tulip, or lotus bud. From these bosses hung pendants, terminating in balls, around the base of which were inscriptions, reading "The Palace of Assur. nazir.pal, the wealth of Bit Kitmuri, which is situated in Kalakh." These inscriptions leave no doubt-if any still remained in the minds of biblical archaeologists-as to the identity of the ruins at Nimrud with the Calah of Genesis, x. 11, although inscriptions testifying to the existence of Resen, "a great city," between Nineveh and Calah, as recorded in Holy Writ, are still wanting; as, also, the identification by inscription of Rehoboth with Kalah Sherkat.

Further inscriptions were found in the same temple, bearing dedications to Istar, the Queen of Kitmuri, attesting to the fact that this was the temple of the Assyrian Aphrodite, in her character of the Goddess of Love and Pleasure. It was therefore in this temple that the sacred mysteries of the worship of Istar and her attendant maids, Samkhat and Harimat, or Pleasure and Passion, were celebrated. In the same temple, also, were performed the mournings and lamentations for the yearly dying Tammuz―the Adonis of the classical poets-and the "Son of Life," whom Istar annually went to recover from the House of Death-the palace of the Land of No-return.

It was these festivals which were performed in this Temple of Pleasure that spread themselves into Phoenicia and Cyprus, and on into Greece. What is still more interesting and curious, its tha

Assur-bani-pal (B.C. 284) placed in this temple a cylinder recording the receipt of tribute from the kings of Cyprus.

The names of these kings, or petty chieftains, so fortunately recovered by Mr. Rassam, are given as Ægistus, king of Idalium; Pythagoras, King of Kidrusi; the Ericli, King of Soli; Ithuander, King of Paphos; Ensei, King of Salamis; Damastis, King of Curium; Karmes, King of Tamissus; Danos, King of Ammochosta; Unasagus, King of Lidni; and Puyuz, King of Aphrodisia.

Idalium, according to the poets, adjoined a forest in Cyprus, sacred to Aphrodite. It has been identified by Engel (“ Kypros,” vol. i., p. 153) with Dalia or Dali, situated to the south of Leucosia, at the foot of Mount Olympus. We have no key to Kidrusi. It may be another form of name to Kition or Kution, one of the most ancient cities in the island, situated between Larnika and the Salines, the Citium of the Romans, as also the Chittim of the Scriptures. Or it may be Kutros or Chytrus, which lay on the road between Ceryneia and Salamis, and which was once governed by sovereign princes. But neither identification is satisfactory. Soli, now Aligūra, was once an important port of Cyprus. It had, according to Strabo, a port, a small river, and a temple of Venus and Isis. Paphos and Salamis are well known. Curium, supposed to have been founded by the Argives, has been indentified by Pococke, with ruins near Piscopia. Near the town is a promontory called Kurias by Ptolemy, and now Capo Bianco, from which sacrilegious offenders who had dared to touch the altars of Apollo were, according to Strabo, thrown into the sea. Tamissus, or Tamassus, was a town in the interior of the island, celebrated for its copper mines and its aerugo or rust. It is supposed from this to bave been the Temere of Homer. Ammochosta or Ammochostus has been transmitted by corruption in the Venitian name of Famagosta. Lidni is not satisfactorily determinable; but the distinction established between Ithuander, King of Paphos, and Puyuz, King of Aphrodisia, would seem to be founded on the distinction known to the classic poets, between Paphos and Nea Paphos, or Palæ Paphos. Paphos being represented by Baffo, and Nea Paphos by Kukla or Konuklia.

During his excavations at Nimrud, Mr. Rassam heard that at a mound named Balawat, about nine miles north-east of Nimrud, in the direction of Gaugamela or Gangamela of the historians of Alexander the Great, some Arabs had, while digging a grave come upon portions of a large bronze relic. He at once went to the place, taking with him sufficient men to commence excavations, if necessary. He soon perceived that accident had brought to light a very valuable Assyrian monument. Clearing away the soil, he

found the relic to be a large bronze trophy, high, and covered with fine bas-reliefs in repoussé work, and in very fair preservation. As nearly all Assyrian monuments are in pairs, he set his men to clear the surrounding space, in the hope of finding the fellow one to the first. Some distance away he found a second and smaller trophy, and the remains of the pedestals of a third and fourth, which had been removed at some former period.

Further excavations revealed the nature of the building. It was a temple, and on the east side Mr. Rassam discovered an altar, approached by four steps, and surrounded by a paved square. Under the altar he further found a large stone chest, in which were deposited three stone tables, with the same inscription on each, as also on the face of the cist.

These inscriptions commence with the name, titles, and genealogy of the Assyrian monarch, Assur-nazir-pal (B.C. 885, 860), who was the builder of all the principal palaces and temples of the city of Kalakh. The inscriptions then give a brief summary of the boundaries of the empire, as enlarged by this great monarch— from the Zagros range and the shores of Lake Van, as far as the slopes of Lebanon, and the shores of the Great Sea. A great portion of Syria and Mesopotamia, and the southern land of Kar Dunias or Babylonia, "all to the borders of Assyria he had restored and caused to submit to his yoke."

Having thus enlarged his empire, he turned his attention to home affairs and to the restoration and beautifying of his capital. He had ever during his career been a most fervent worshipper of Adar, the war god, and Istar, in her guise of queen of war and battle, and he determined to build a special shrine in their honour at Tul Labiru or the "old mound," where, with a temple specially dedicated to his favourite gods, he also erected a palace for himself. He at the same time changed the name of the place, now marked by the mounds of Balawat, to Imgur Bel, or "the suburb of Bel."

We learn from the inscriptions that the roof and doors of the temple were of cedar wood; the statue of the god of marble, with a gold breast plate; and that silver, gold, and precious stones, were lavishly expended upon its decorations. There is, therefore, promise of a rich harvest for future excavation.

Mr. Rassam found a deep well at the eastern extremity of the mound, and round the building were evident traces of a series of conduits and aqueducts.

But above all, in what was apparently a side chapel, were deposited the trophies on which were inscribed and figured the representations of the wars and campaigns in which Adar and Istar had so often led the king to victory. These trophies are quite

unique in character, and the largest of them is fortunately the most perfect, and it preserves the illustrations of one of the most in. teresting and important of the Royal campaigns, and one of which the sculptures had as yet afforded no information. It attests, as had been previously deducted from the records of other Assyrian campaigns, that the highway of the Assyrians to the west lay by the Biblical Haran and Serug (at both of which sites Assyrian lions have been found), over the Euphrates at the pass where the Khalif, Al Mamun, erected the fine old "castle of the stars," which is still standing; and by Carchemis, the Hierapolis of the Romans, and Mambej, or Jerabolus of the present day, across the Apre, or Afrin, and by the upper valley of the Orontes and Hamath, the capital of the Hittites, and thence by Baalbek, to the Nahr-el-Kelb (where tribute was taken)-the Lycus, or Dog river, also of the Romans-where the monarch came face to face with the "great sea of the west." Six Assyrian tablets, cut in the face of the rocks-records of royal conquerors who have passed through the gates of the west, and exactly similar to the one portrayed in the bronze of Imgur Bel, are still to be seen at this point, with the figures above them: "An image over against the great sea I caused to be made."

The illustrations of this compaign are, as we have before said, replete with interest, The "great sea" is illustrated by an aquatic monster representing an hippotamus or leviathan, as also crocodiles, which were met with in the rivers of Syria in early times. There are representations of various religious services and ceremonies, and even of the actual work of cutting the inscriptions, an act attended by sacrificial offerings: "Victims I offered; an image of my royalty I caused to be carved." The Tyrians and Zidonians are also represented with their tribute offerings, as also many military acts and events-marches, sieges, and executions.

There is also a representation of a sacrificial scene in a valley or glen in a mountainous district, in the open ground of which are seen arranged four conical stones "resembling the Baalim or figures worshipped by the Syrians." But the cone was a peculiarly favourite object of illustration with the Assyrians, and equally so, as Loftus has shown, with the Chaldæans; and we have it on the authority of Tacitus ("Hist." xi., 3) that Aphrodite of Cyprus was, like the Semitic Astarte (Istar), worshipped under the form of a conical stone.

Mr. Rassam, acting under the orders of the Trustees of the British Museum, also carried on further excavations in the mound

"An Excursion to Haran and Serug."-COLBURN'S NEW MONTHLY Jan., 1878, p. 71 and 73.