arms of the country
and the insignia of its highest order of nobility. It is the lion of
Iran, holding in its paw the sceptre of the Khorassan while behind it
shines the sun of Darius. There is a legend concerning the latter symbol
to the effect that Darius, hunting in the desert, threw his spear at a
lion and missed. The beast crouched to spring, when the sun, shining on
a talisman on Darius' breast, so overpowered it that it came fawning to
his feet and followed him back to the city. And for this reason the sun
became part of the arms of the kingdom. But I think we may look further
than this and find in it a relic of the ancient fire worship and of
oriental pretentions to power over heaven and earth.

[Illustration: Stamp, Egypt, 5 para]

How much of Egypt's myths and splendors are here depicted; the temple
column called Pompey's pillar, the obelisk of Luxor, the mighty
pyramids, last of all the sphynx, that fabled creature with the face of
a woman, the body of a tigress and the heart of both. In fancy we can
see her, crouched on a rock beside the great highway to Thebes,
propounding her fatal riddle to the bewildered passers by, till Oedipus
shall come.

[Illustration: Stamp, Turkey]

On the stamps and coins of Turkey we miss the portrait of the reigning
sovereign, which we find on such issues of most monarchies. This is due
to a law of Mohammed, which forbids the reproduction of the human
figure. On the stamps we find the crescent, said to have been the emblem
of the Byzantine empire and adopted by the Turks after the fall of
Constantinople. We also find an elaborate device called the Toughra or
signature of the Sultan. It owes its origin to the Sultan Murad I, a
liberal sovereign and founder of many schools and institutions of
learning but unable to write his own name. He signed imperial decrees by
dipping his fingers in ink and placing them on the documents with three
fingers close together and the little finger and thumb extended. In
course of time this was adopted and, so to speak, consecrated as the
signature of the Sultan. It was also elaborated and arranged to form a
written phrase, while preserving, in a general way, its original form.
The toughra contains certain characters which are permanent and minor
ones which change. The latter are the names of the sovereign and his
father. Thus the toughra which we illustrate reads: "His Majesty Abdul
Hamid, son of Mejid, may he be always victorious." The small i