The progress of Egyptological science appears, therefore, to demand that we should adopt the Biggig monolith as a genuine obelisk, however awkward it may be presumed to be in its proportions. It, no doubt, stood once in front of the entrance of a temple dedicated to Ptah, or Vulcan, like the temple of Memphis; and in its broken condition is still highly reverenced by the country-people, who “look on these fragments with the same superstitious feeling as on some stones at the temple of Panopolis, and other places; and the women recite the Fat’ha over them in the hope of a numerous offspring.”[41] That they have some ground for their credence may be gathered from the official legend engraved on the narrow sides, translated by the distinguished Egyptologist, M. Chabas:[42]— _North._—“The heaven, the kingly Horus, life of _births_, lord of the diadems, life of _births_, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-kheper-ka, beloved of Ptah of Res-sobt-ef (Ptah of the southern wall), the life of _births_, golden hawk, good god, master of domination.” _South._—“The heaven, the kingly Horus, life of _births_, lord of diadems, life of _births_, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-kheper-ka, beloved of Month, lord of Thebais, life of _births_, hawk of gold, good god, lord of the two lands,”.... [41] Murray’s Hand-book. [42] “A Short History of the Egyptian Obelisks,” by W. R. Cooper, F.R.A.S., M.R.A.S.; 1877. So long as the Biggig monolith was the only known example of an obelisk on the western shore of the Nile, there were grounds for considering it as an interloper and an impostor; but at present, since the discovery of the pedestals of obelisks in western Thebes by M. Mariette, it may assert its claim to be admitted into the group of genuine obelisks. II.—THOTHMES I., of the eighteenth dynasty, which embraces the period between 1703 and 1462 B.C., stands next in age to Usertesen, although about 1,500 years must have elapsed between the dates of their respective works. The obelisk now standing in front of the propylon of the Osiris temple at Karnak, is the work of Thothmes I.; the companion obelisk lies broken by its side. The hieroglyphic exordium of Thothmes I. occupies the pyramidion and two of the faces of the obelisk; while the remaining faces have been appropriated by Rameses II. Two hundred and fifty years therefore must have intervened between the dates of the two writings.