Cleopatra's Needle

Cleopatra’s Needle is described as a history of the London obelisk, with an exposition of the hieroglyphics, by the Rev. James King, authorized lecturer to the Palestine Exploration Fund. The contents list names, among others, chapters headed The Religious Character of the Ancient Egyptians and How the Hieroglyphic Language was Recovered. The chapter headed The Religious Character of the Ancient Egyptians has the present writer standing on the top of the great pyramid and gazing with wonder at the wide prospect around.

A passage on the hieroglyphs explains that the sceptre as an ideograph means power, in the same manner as the sceptre carried by our monarch on state occasions is a badge of authority. A passage on the hieroglyphs gives a palatial title that may be rendered “The powerful bull, crowned in Western Thebes.” A passage about tombs says one of the most gorgeous of the sepulchral palaces was that prepared by Rameses II., and that the portals were walled up after the burial of the king.