§1. On looking over the translation of our obelisk, as set forth in the preceding pages, the reader will perhaps feel disappointed in the substance of its inscriptions. These contain, as has already been stated, only laudatory phrases and vainglorious titles, and furnish us with no historical data nor anything that would be of value to scholars. People have for many centuries suspected them of an utterly different meaning, and have given them the most fanciful and ludicrous explanations. For instance, Athanasius Kircher in his "_Oedipus_" (published in 1650), when speaking of our obelisk, says: "_It_ [the New York Obelisk] _sets forth the activity and functions of the twelve solar genii in the world's government, which result from their protection and presence, and with what rites and ceremonies each of them must be propitiated; for each in his tour around each of the four sides keeps watch over his particular quarter of the world, which he both guards against the attack of the evil genii and preserves_". All this, of course, is sheer nonsense. Besides this ridiculous explanation Kircher mentions that at the base of our obelisk were engraved the words [Arabic: MSLH FR`WN] "_Pharaoh's Needle_", which is both improbable and impossible, though, as a matter of fact, the obelisk always went by that name among the Arabs. The most silly guess at a translation, however, is probably that of the Mohammedan writer Ibn-el-Vardi, who visited Alexandria and saw our obelisk there in 1340. He writes of it as follows: {80}"_This is on it_ [the obelisk]: '_I, Ya`mer-ben-Shaddad, have founded this city, when old age did not yet overtake nor death disturb nor gray hairs trouble me, when stones were here in abundance, and men did not acknowledge masters. I have built its porticoes, and dug its canals, and planted its trees, and desired to embellish it with wonderful monuments and amazing structures. I have sent my servant El·Thabut-ben-Marrat, the `Adite, and Maqdam-ibn-El·`Amr-ben-abi-Re`al, the Thamudite, the caliph, to Mount Tarim, the red mountain, and they cut out of it two rocks and carried them both on their shoulders. Then one of the ribs of El·Thabut having been crushed, I caused the people of my kingdom to make reparation. Now these two_ [obelisks] _were erected for me by El·Fatan-ibn-Jarud, the Mutafakite, on an auspicious day._'" [Illustration] The same writer then states: "_And this is the very obelisk which is in the corner of the city looking toward the East, while the other is seen further in the interior of the city._"