Age Of The Obelisks

Now that the obeli.-k has rebebed our shorts in sui'ety and been placed io central park, New York city, it is in order for ua tu relate so much of its history as is preserved to U3 since its erection, together witli its sister obelisk before the temple ol the suri at Ueliopolis. In the light of recent revelations it would si'oni that these obelisks were not orected during the reign of Tuothmes III. as previously supposed, but are attribnted to an earlier period. J)emocritus, a Greek philnsopher, visited Esypt in the fifth century, bulbre the Christian era, or about l.mtO year after the death of Thothmes III., and, after a sojourn of five years there, compiled a dictionary of bieroglyphics - the same characters which we lind on the obelisk. Writers coming aftcr h is time related thisfact, but what had become of this valued and much sought tor kcy has í'or centuries remained a mystery, until lust winter, when a Latin translation of it was found in an old monastery at Can tan;i, in Sieily. Deciphering with its assUtance the inscriptions upon the obelisk, wu li'iirn that the Egyptians carne from a land in eternil liloom where food was had without the aking, of wanderings through extensivo pluins and mountains and deserts to tlieir tina] resting plac3 on the Nile, where they were contented and powerful, but where they could not help looking back with wistful cyes to the ancient houie of their race in the far-away country. They even perceived in the dim distance thatsotne dire calamity would befall thera un Egyptian soil, and a long, long time i henee when this obelisk would be transfrt ¦] U) the land of their origin whieh they were never to beh-jli again. To be mote preci-e, and reading the hieroglyphics perpendicularly, being Iroüi the direction from which the bird on the top faces, the inscription would seom toread thus: " lie. it known to all the nations, that we, in the height of our wisdom and power, whieh extends over all this land of Egypt and to many lands beyond, have erected this monument as a record of the deeds of our tather.s before us, and of ourselves, who are but poor, weak and puny worms of the dubt before their eyes. "They conquered this land for us, and we have but to follow in their footstcps; aye, in the. yerv fbotstniix ni' thoir filoi.i a.nJ renown. They it was, as they have many times related to us, who came from the huid wht?re the rose trees are ever in blossom, and where the date and the fig and the tamarind trees never are barren, where t hu butterfly airs its gauzy win? the liveInng day, and where the boe gives abunUnco of honey and never has a sting. I 'i mui there they came to where the grass is ever green and the goats never weary in giving ujilk. Still further they wandered through lands where food was scarce and wild beasts plenty, until after maDy years they came to the blessed 2iüe, their second