OBER-AMMERGAU 



OBESITY 



were offered to the olielisks, which were treated as 

 divinities. Thrii seimlehral use is evinced by their 

 iv in the tamw of the 4th dynasty, and the 

 vignette* of early papyii. The imwt of them date 

 from the ISih MM i'Jth dynasties. Two which 

 fi.inn-tly stood lit Heliopolisfij.v.) were re-erected 

 by lUuiescs II. at Alexandria, and have been 



Cleopatra's Needle, Thames Embankment, London. 



popularly known as Cleopatra's Needles. One, 

 which long lay prostrate, was, after an adventurous 

 voyage, brought to I^mdon in 1878, and erected on 

 the I hanips Kinhaukment ; it weighs 186 tons, and 

 is 6S1 feet high. The other, presented by the 

 Khedive to the United States, was set up in 

 Central I'ark, New York, in 1881. There are 

 several large OUCH in Koine ( that now at St Peter's 

 having been taken to Home by Caligula), one in 

 Florence, one in Paris (given by Meliemet All in 

 1837), and Lo|>sius's in Ilerlin (the oldest and 

 xnmlleM of all, 2 feet 1J inch high), liesides many 

 other* that have found their way into European 

 museum*, liy far the largest olivli.sk in the world 

 i- the Washington inoiinnient ( 1885), at Washing- 

 toil, !>.('. li i- <>f marble, 65 feet square at the 

 base, and 555 feet high. 



Bet Zoega, Dt Origine el Viu Obtlueorum (1797); 

 Birch, ffotti upon OMitkt (18M); Gorringe, KijuiAian 

 OMukt(lW). 



OlMT-Aminrrffnil. a village in the valley of 

 the Aiiinter in l'|.|.er Itavaria, 45 miles S\V. of 

 Mnnieh, with 1400 inhabitants. Here the famous 

 Miracle Play is i-ifoimcd every ten years. See 



M\sTKItlK.S AM) MIRACLE-PLAYS. 



Obrrland, HF.HXESE. See RERX. 



OlM-rlhi. .IniiANN FRIEDRICH, a pastor dis- 



tingiii-li'-.l for hi* active benevolence and useful 

 nens, was Wn at Sttaslmrg, 31st August 1740, 

 and in 1707 Wame 1'miestant pastor of \\'nlil 

 liach, in the Han dc la Ii<-h<.- or St< inlhnl, a wilil 

 inountaiiioii- district of AUaco. Here he K]H'III 

 the leniainiler of hi- life, oonbining an afTcctionate 

 diliKencc in the ordinary duties of the pastorate 

 with wise and earnest endeavours to promote the 

 education and general prosjicrity of the people. 



The district had suffered teuilily in the Thirty 

 Years' War, and the wanly population which 

 leiuaincd wan Mink in ]ioverty ami ipiorance. 

 OlxrliM iiitnxlneeil lietl.'i nifthiMls (if cnltivutinn 

 tlie -oil, and various branches of manufacture, and 

 made roads and bridges where rci|iiiie,l. He 

 iniimlrd an itinerating lilnury, lie^iin the lii-i infant 

 .-rlnMil-, and introduced ordinary schools in the 

 di.-tiict. Pastor Ol>erlin was latterly consulted in 

 nil that concerned the teni|K>ral and spiritual wel- 

 fare of the people. The population, which was 

 scarcely 500 when he entered on his labours, had 

 increased to 3000 at the close of the century. The 

 district still continues prosperous, and the popula- 

 tion in 1890 was (KKX). Ohcrlin WHS ably assisted 

 in his reformatory lalionrs by his pious house- 

 keeper, Louise Schcpplei, who survived her master 

 eleven years. He died 1st June 1820. Notwith- 

 standing the humble sphere in which his days were 

 spent, his fame as a philanthropist has extended 

 over the world, and his example ha.- stimulated 

 and guided many. The Itoyal Agricultural Socii-iy 

 of France bestowed a gold medal upon him in 1818. 

 A collected edition of his writings appealed at 

 Stuttgart (4 vols. 1843). 



See Sims'g Brief Memorial* of OltrUn (1830); the 

 Mi main of Obrrliu (1x52); nd UM Uapanhiai by Bode- 

 niann (18C8), Bpacli (Pahs, 186(5), and liutler ( 1882 ). 



Obermann. See SNAXCOUB, 



Oboron, the king of the elves or fairies, and 

 the husband of Titania. The name is derived 

 from the French Anberon or Albcron, and that 

 from the German Alberich (alb, 'elf,' and rich). 

 Oberon is first mentioned as ' Koi dti royaume de 

 la feerie' in the 13th-century French IMHMII of 

 Huon de Bordeaux. The quariel between t (beron 

 and Titania and their subsequent reconciliation 

 through Huon, a French noble, and Amanda, 

 daughter of the sultan of Babylon, whom the 

 former leads home by the help of Oberon, after 

 many dilticulties, form the basis of this tale, which 

 was" afterwards shaped into a ]ipnlar prose 

 romance. The name first appeared in Kn^lish in 

 Lord Uemers' translation ( Early Eng. 'IVxt Soc, 



i, and was adopted in many ballads, and also 

 in Greene's play, J'lie Scottish History of Jama 

 IV., slain at tflodden. Neither these, iiowcver, 

 nor Spenser's use made the name familiar, but 

 Shakespeare's Miilxniiiinrr Xittlit's Itrntm, where,* 

 as Keightlev ]>oiiits out. the fairy mythology is an 

 attempt to \>lend the elves of the village ilh the 

 fays of romance. The fairies here agree with the 

 former in their diminutive stature, in their fond- 

 ness for dancing, their love of cleanliness, and their 

 child-alistractiiij,' propensities. Like the fays, they 

 form a community ruled over by the princely 

 OlH-ron and tlie fair Titania. "\Vicland used the 

 subject for his well-known romantic poem, and 

 1'lanche's adaptation of this forms the subject of 

 WelH-r'g opera. The old <-/i,ii,s<, de geste wa 

 editeil by Guessanl and Grandmaison (Paris, 1860). 

 See Liebrecht's German translation of Lhinlop's 

 Hittory o/Prote Fiction ( 1851 ). 



Obesity, or CORITI.KSCK, may IK- defined to 

 IK? 'an accumulation of fat under the integument* 

 or in the abdomen, or in lxith situations, to such 

 an amount as to embarrass the several _ voluntary 

 functions.' A certain degree of fatness is not only 

 quite compatible with health, but, as has been 

 shown in the article FATS, the fatly tissue is 

 of considerable use in the animal body, partly 

 in consequence of ite physical and partly in 

 consequence of its chemical properties; and it is 

 only when the fatness 1>egins to interfere w ith the 

 discharge of any of the vital powers that it can be 

 regarded as a morbid condition. Obesity may occur 

 at any period of life, but it is most commonly after 



