BY REV. J. S. HOLME.
Cleopatra's Needle is not such a needle as we use to sew with: it is a great stone—sometimes called an obelisk—nearly seventy feet long, and about seven feet square at the base on which it stands. Its sides gradually taper from the bottom until at the top it ends in a small pointed four-sided pyramid. It is of red granite, and the sides are covered all over with pictures of birds, animals, and other things, cut into the stone. It is called a needle because it is so long and slender. But why it should be called Cleopatra's Needle is not quite so clear. Cleopatra was a famous Queen who lived in Egypt a little while before the birth of Christ. She was a very beautiful woman, and well educated; but she did many foolish things, and some very wicked things; and, as such people often are, she, though a great Queen, was at last so very unhappy that she wickedly put an end to her own life.
This obelisk was at first erected by Thothmes III., one of the old Kings of Egypt, at Heliopolis, about 3600 years ago. It was taken from that place to Alexandria, where Cleopatra lived, not long after her death, by the Roman Emperor Augustus Cæsar, as a trophy of his victory over the Kings of Egypt, and it was called "Cleopatra's Needle," we suppose, merely in compliment to the late Queen.
Egypt is supposed to be the oldest nation in the world. The Kings used to be called Pharaohs, and many of them were very great and powerful. Some were great warriors, others were great builders—builders of pyramids, cities, temples, and obelisks. They were very vain of their glory, and they were great boasters, fond of inscribing their names and deeds on stone. Cleopatra's Needle is one of two great obelisks which one of these Pharaohs erected, and placed one on each side of the entrance to the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis. The Egyptians worshipped the sun as their god under the name of Ra, and the name of Pharaoh, by which the Egyptian Kings were known, means "a son of the sun."
The Pharaohs did great honor to their sun-god, as they thought they were his children. The Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis was the greatest in all Egypt, and its ruins now cover nearly a mile in extent. Thothmes erected these obelisks at the entrance to this Temple of the Sun, partly in honor to the sun-god, and partly to honor himself, as he wrote his own history up and down the sides of the obelisk, not in letters such as we use, but in pictures of birds, animals, and other things, which kind of writing these old Egyptians used, and we call them hieroglyphics. This obelisk stood a great many years near the door of this temple at Heliopolis—or, as it is called in the Bible, "the city of On"—where it was at first erected.
Some of the children may remember that a few weeks ago, in the regular Sunday-school lesson, it is said that "Pharaoh gave to Joseph in marriage Asenath, the daughter of Poti-pherah, priest of On." This Poti-pherah was the high-priest—a very great man in Egypt, and lived in the Temple of the Sun at On. And it is quite likely that this very obelisk stood before his door on the day that Joseph married his daughter Asenath. And if this is so, is it not wonderful that this great stone that weighs 213 tons, on which Joseph may have looked on his wedding day 3600 years ago, should now be in a country 5000 miles away, of which the old Egyptians never heard? And is it not still more wonderful that, while the children in the Sunday-schools of America should be studying their regular Bible lesson about Joseph's marriage, this great obelisk, that stood at the door of his father-in-law's house, should be lying in the street, at the door of one of our schools, on its way to the Central Park in New York?
But now we must tell you how this great obelisk came to be brought to this country. Obelisks are great curiosities. There are only a few large ones in the world. These all used to be in Egypt, and the Egyptians thought a great deal of them. But four or five of these were taken at different times, without leave of the people of Egypt, to different countries in Europe. Two stand in Rome, one in Constantinople, one in Paris, and one in London. Now Mehemet Ali, the late Khedive of Egypt, had a great liking for America. He thought that the United States had treated him better than the European nations; and it seemed to him that we ought to have an obelisk as well as the nations of Europe. And when the American Consul asked for one, he said, "I will think of it." It was supposed he might give us a little one. But no one ever thought of asking for "Cleopatra's Needle" at Alexandria: this was one of the largest and most beautiful in all Egypt. But it so happened that this obelisk stood very near the sea. The waves of the Mediterranean rolled right up to its base. There was great danger of its being undermined. It was thought already to begin to lean a little. Many feared it would soon fall. This gave the Khedive great anxiety; and so he proposed to remove it to another part of the city of Alexandria. But this would cost a great deal of money, and the Khedive was not at this time rich; so he proposed that the wealthy men of the city should raise by subscription one-half of the money needed to remove it, and he would provide the other half. But the people of Alexandria thought the government ought to do it all, and did not subscribe a dollar. At this Mehemet Ali was greatly displeased; and he thereupon made up his mind to make this beautiful obelisk a present from Egypt, the oldest nation of the world, to the United States of America, the youngest nation. And glad, indeed, we were to get it; and sorry enough were the Egyptians at last to lose it.
One of our wealthy citizens, on learning the intention of the Khedive of Egypt, said he would pay $75,000, the estimated cost of its removal, when the obelisk should be erected in the Central Park.
Lieutenant-Commander Gorringe, U.S.N., undertook the task of bringing it over—and a very great one it has been; but he has done it with great skill and success, and thus far at his own expense and risk. And it will cost much more to complete the work than the $75,000 promised; but New York, without doubt, will see Lieutenant-Commander Gorringe repaid for his outlay, for it will be a great thing to have a genuine Egyptian obelisk, Cleopatra's Needle, in the Central Park in this city.