The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-07-27
AUTOGRAPHS OF
FAMOUS KINGS
Their Records Left on the Rocks in
the Holy Land.

trip to the autograph album of the |
kings on the cliffs at Dog river. 1t
is easily reached by train or car
riage. 1t is especially desirable that
the traveller who has not been to
Egypt or who cannot hope to see
Babylon should go to this spot where
so many of these kings have left
their signatures upon the rocks. To
be sure you will not be able to read
the writing, for the biting sea-wind
has not dealt so kindly with the
proud records as the gentler airs of
Egypt. But it is a striking collec-
tion of names that are here to be
read, through the help of those pa
tient scholars who have been puz-
zling out the records of the centuries
The Dog river is not much of a
stream, but it has cut a pass through
the Lebanon mountains which the
military men of old found convenient
when passing from Egypt to the
Euphrates. Nobody knows who built
the first road here, but it has been
rebuilt or repaired successfully
throughout the centuries by Baby
lonians, Egyptians, Greeks and Ro-
mans.
Furthermore, nobody knows who
was the first king to dwell among
these rocks. In the limestone caves
that honeycomb the banks of the
Dog river there are the bones and
f1ints of men who lived before the
days of iron tools. Their petty kings
oh hiu
pass to make war upon the inhabi-
tants of the plains. AS you zig-zag
up the side of the cliff over a trail
of rocks that would make the path
that leads along the precipice at
Campbell's Ledge seem like boule-
varde, you can the more easily
imagine the rude days of these pre-
historic kings than when you stand
by the cut stones of the ruined Ro-
man road.
The earliest autographic record
takes you back to the days of Moses.
Here are no less than three tablets
cut by the obsequious slaves of
Rameses II, the great warrior king
of Egypt. Two of these tablets are
on the lower of the old military
roads and one upon the upper.
There are still traces of the hero
glyphics that record the glories OF
this Pharoah who oppressed the He
brews some 5000 years ago, but the
slow centuries have rendered them
illegible. However, one can still
make out the familiar figure of the
great king who came along this road
to triumph over the Hittites at the
decisive battle of Kadesh
Another tablet in which the little
tattle of kings rather than a victory
has been preserved, is that of Tig.
lath Pileset, 100 3. c. After the
great battle of Karkemish, which
carried the early Assyrian empire tC
the summit of its power. he erected
this monument to record the fact that
he had passed along the road tC
victory, but he tells also with a
sort of childish delight that he hat
ventured on the sea in "one of the
slain porpoise."
Three hundred years later another
Assyrian king, AssurnaXirpal, march
ed along this road to victory ovel
Syria and left his autograph upol
the rocks in tablet erected to hi.
glory and the honor of the gods t.
whom he is represented as offerini
sacrifices and libations.
Then comes the tablet of his son
Shalmanezer II, who passed alonl
this road in $50 B. c. to receive tn,
homage of the king of Phoenicia
The figure of the king in royal robe
is clearly to be seen, with his beart
and hair freshly dressed and TWISTED
by the royal BARRIERS before his roya
portrait was cut
Most interesting of all, perhaps
and next in order of time is the tab
let of Seuacherib, who is 72O B. c
came down like the wolf on tn
fold of Jerusalem, as Byron tell
in his splendid poem But it is o
his victorious descent on Phoenici
and not of the plague-stricken arm
and the disastrous retreat that tn
tablet makes record.
Another tablet is that erected b
the famous Nebuchadnezar, high u
va 'AN Nilils lhoNl iDtuy hO uOuDl, VINE
he made his victorious campaig
against Egypt and incidentally cal
ried away the Jews captives TO BABY
lon. But the great conqueror cor
tents himself with praising the win
of Helbon, a village of Coele-Syri
where the grapes still grow sweet!
The last of the Assyrian inscriJ
tions is that of Esarhaddon, the on
loyal son of Sennacherib. This MOI
arch came from the plains of I'll
Euphrates over the rock-hewn roa
to conquer afresh the cities of Pho
nicia and Tyre, which the politician
of Egypt had invited TO revolt. A
If to show by grim, silent irony h
triumph, he has caused his likene
to be cut by the side of that of Il
ancient Rameses.
Last of all is another tablet erec
ed by Rameses which the FrenC
general Duprex covered with plast
and yellow paint in 1861 to recol