The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-07-25
SOME FAMOUS STONES.
Tables of the Law-Moabite Stone
Rosetta Stone and Others.
New York TribuneD

in the Book of Exodus That says Mo-
ses went up on Mount Sinai at the
command of God and He gave unto
Moses, when he had made an end of
communing with Him upon Mount ST.
mai. two tables of testimony, tables of
stone, written with the finger of God"
When Moses went down from the
mount with these in his hands he found
that the people in his absence had made
golden calf and We're worshipping il
and dancing, and his "anger waXed
hot, and he cast the tables out of his
hands and broke them beneath the
mount" But afterwards Moses was
commanded by the Lord to hew two
other tables of stone, like the first, and
on these the Lord wrote the ten
words as he had on the others. These
tables are said to have been placed in
the ark of the tabernacle as a testi-
mony of Jehovah's revelation. When
Solomon built the famous temple in Je-
rusalem there was place of the ark
in it with the two tables of the law.
What finally became of them is not
matter of recorded history, but il is
surmised that the ark was captured
at the time of the siege of Jerusalem
by NebuchadneZZar. There was no
ark in the second temple. erected by
Hezekiah. and nothing is known Of the
fate of the second set OF stones on
which the Ten Commandments, or Dec
alogue. were inscribed. Those who have
studied the Hebrew myths surmise that
in the earliest days there was sacred
stone worshipped as god. for which
there was later substituted the tables
of the law inscribed on stone.
One of the oldest historic stones now
extant is what is called the MOabite
stone. 1t was found by German mis-
sionary, the Rev. F. Klein, in 1898, at
Diban, in Moab, Syria. Moab. the an
cestor of the Moabites, was a son of
Lot by one of his daughters, accord
ing to the account in the Book of Cen
esis so that Moabites were closely al
lied to the Hebrews. The language on
the Moabite stone is identical with that
on Phoenician monuments and is al
most like the Hebrew in many respects
The date of the inscription on the stone
is held TO be $50 B. c. As the oldest in
scription in the Phoenician language II
is held to be of high value. The stone
was purchased by an attache of the
French consul at Jerusalem. who Sc
cured a squeeze of the inscription be-
fore, owing to a quarrel of the Arab
claimants to ownership of il, the stone
was broken in several pieces. The in
scription. which fills some thirty-fOur
lines relates 10 the achievements of
Mesha king of Moab. whose revolt
after the death of Ahab is recorded in
the Second Book of Kings in the Bible.
The names of many historical sites in
Moab are included in the inscription
The fragments of the stone are now
preserved in the Louvre in Paris. Much
scholarly attainment has been devoted
to the translation of the writing there
on. One of the most famous, as we'll as
most useful, stones in history is the
Rosetta stone, by means Of which
hieroglyphics We're deciphered. II is a
slab of black basalt, found near Ro-
setta, Egypt. in 1888, by a French Of
ficer of engineers. and is now in the
British museum. The dates on il show
that il was inscribed about two GEN.
turtles before the Christian era in honor
Of Ptolemy V (Epiphanes). The decree
on it is written in hieroglyphics in the
demotic writing and in Greek This
stone put in the hands of scholars two
long Egyptian texts. representing diff
ferent periods of the language. rem
dered into Greek. and so gave key
to the long lost picture writing on ODE
| liSkS and other memorials.
The famous stone of ScOne. Scotland.
is a palladium stone, which is said TO
have been set up at IcOlmkill for the cor
onatiOn of Fergus Eric and was called
the Lia-Fail of Ireland. The son of Fer
gus Eric removed il TO ScOne. where 1t
! was used for the installation into office
of the kings of Scotland for several cen
turtles after the tenth. When coward
| il to London. where il is kept IN west
minister Abbey. forming the support OF
| the chair of Edward the Confessor- which
| is used as the throne for the coronation
| of the monarchs of Great Britain The
ancient legend runs:
Where er this stone is placed. the fates
decree.
The Scottish race shall there the SOW
ereignS be.
Antedating these in legend is the ia
| nous Blarney stone of Ireland, which.
| tradition saws was in possession of the
| Carthagenians and perhaps before their
day of the Syrians and Phoenicians. VINO
settled the African city The KISSING OF
| II is said 10 have made the SyrianS dou-
| ble-tongued and the expressive Runic
| faith is credited to its qualities. Becom-
! ing enamored of the stone some adVen-
/ furious Argonauts stole II and then SCI
| sail for Cyprus. but with adverse gales
| were carried past the Pillars of Hercules
| and finally in a storm made the coast OF
| Ireland near Cork. where the stone was
| carried ashore. There 1t remained, traol-
| tion saws until in the fifteenth century
| Rlarnev castle was erected and the stone
placed in its donjOn tower. where II Is
| shown 10 visitors at this time, the KISS
| ing of it giving one freedom OF speech
| The most noted collection of stones IN
the world. aside from the Pyramids and
the Sphinx is probably that at Stone
| henge. England. variously attributed 10
| the Druids and to the early Britons, but
| the design of which is still con1ectural.
! Whether a temple. a court, place Tor
sacrifice or designed for astronomical
| nurposes is uncertain.
! In many Italian cities there formerly
! existed what was called ''pietra din
| fannie or stone of infamy Tor the
/ punishment of bankrupts. In Venice one
| stands near the Church of St Mark.
and in Verona and Florence they are
near the old markets On day in car
niyal week the Old-time custom was 10
| have all traders who had become bank
rrIpt in the preceding twelve months, led
! to the stone and one by one each stood
| on it's center to hear the reading or q
| report of his business failure and 10 en-
! dure the reproaches heaped on him by
! his creditors. At the end or certain
time each bankrupt was partly undressed
and three officers took hold of his Shout
ders and three others of his knees. and
raising him as high as they could
bumped him on the stone deliberately
| twelve times. lin honor of the twelvs
| apostles" the creditors Growing like
| cocks while the humping proceeded.
The Great Stone Face immortalized b,
Hawthorne is the famous Profice Rocl
| to be seen in the White mountains. neal
the Franconia notch AT a certain poin