OBELISK 



4328 



OBERLIN COLLEGE 



area of Texas. The Ob and its several tribu- 

 taries have a combined navigable length of 

 9,000 miles. The stream flows through fertile 

 and fairly populous districts, and though 100 

 miles from its mouth it is blocked with ice 

 from October to June, in the summer it is the 

 means of transporting grain, dairy products, 

 stock, wool and meat produced in Western 

 Siberia. By a system of canals the Ob is con- 

 nected with the Yenisei and thus with the Lake 

 Baikal region, and it meets the Trans-Siberian 

 Railroad at Omsk. 



OBELISE, ob'elisk, a four-sided shaft, 

 tapering toward the top, which usually has the 

 shape of a pyramid. The obelisk was a charac- 

 teristic form of monument of the ancient 

 Egyptians, who erected numerous pillars of 

 this type in honor of their sun god. In the 

 sacred city of Heliopolis obelisks have been 

 found in large numbers. These monuments 

 were cut from solid granite by an interesting 

 process. After the rough form had been chis- 

 eled out, three sides were polished. Then holes 

 were drilled close together along the length of 

 rock, and plugged with pieces of wood. Fre- 

 quent moistening caused the wood to swell, 

 splitting the stone from end to end. The fourth 

 side was then finished off and the obelisk was 

 ready to be floated down the Nile or dragged 

 to its Destination. Before erection it was in- 

 scribed with appropriate hieroglyphics. These 

 inscriptions gave the titles and achievements 

 of the dedicating ruler, and sometimes stated 

 the length of time it took to complete the 

 monument. It was customary to erect pairs 

 of obelisks at entrances of temples. 



There are in existence several obelisks of 

 great interest. Cleopatra's Needles (described 

 and illustrated on page 1417) were a pair of 

 pillars erected at Heliopolis by Thothmes III. 

 During the rule of the Ptolemies they were 

 removed to Alexandria; later they were taken 

 away from Egypt, one being placed on the 

 Thames Embankment in London (1878), the 

 other erected in Central Park, New York City, 

 in 1881. Of the two obelisks before the tem- 

 ple at Luxor, dating from the time of Rameses 

 II, one is still standing on the original site; the 

 other is one of the glories of the Place de la 

 Concorde, Paris. Another famous pillar, over 

 100 feet in height, is that of the Church of 

 Saint John of the Lateran, in Rome. It was 

 built by Thothmes III in the fifteenth cen- 

 tury B.C., at Heliopolis, and carried to Italy 

 by Constantine the Great, who had it set up 

 in the Circus Maximus. In 1552 it was brought 



to its present site by Pope Sixtus V. The 

 Lateran obelisk is the largest known. Besides 

 those of Egypt, obelisks of smaller size have 

 been discovered in the ruins of Nineveh and 

 Nimrud. 



OBERAMMERGAU, oberahm'ergou, a vil- 

 lage in Upper Bavaria, forty-three miles from 

 Munich, celebrated for the performance of the 

 Passion Play representing Christ's crucifixion 

 and ascension. Since the fifteenth century. 

 every ten years, with but few exceptions, this 

 play has been performed during the months 

 of May and October, about six times each 

 month. Almost the entire village is repre- 

 sented in the roles, but the greatest honor that 

 can come to any of the villagers is to be 

 chosen for either the part of Christ or of the 

 Virgin Mary; it is the prayer of every mother 

 of Oberammergau, when she brings into the 

 world a son or a daughter, that her child may 

 thus be honored. The play has become a 

 part of the very lives of the people, and just 

 before the time arrives for them to portray the 

 characters of the Bible story, they put aside 

 their work of wood carving or farming and 

 enter upon a period of spiritual preparation 

 (see PASSION PLAY.) 



0' BERLIN COLLEGE, a school for higher 

 education, founded in 1833 at Oberlin, Ohio, 

 and named in honor of the Lutheran educator 

 Jean Frederic Oberlin (see below). Its found- 

 ers, the Rev. John S. Shipherd and Mr. Philo 

 Stewart, left their homes in Vermont and came 

 westward for the purpose of establishing in 

 the Mississippi Valley a school which should 

 bring about results as far-reaching as those 

 effected by Oberlin in Germany. The insti- 

 tution soon became a center of democratic 

 ideals in education. It was one of the first 

 American colleges to admit women on the 

 same terms as men, and as early as 1835 the 

 trustees voted to put up no barriers to students 

 of the colored race. So far us known, the 

 women of the class of 1841 were the first in 

 the United States to receive a standard de- 

 gree of Bachelor of Arts. 



When the college was opened sessions were 

 held only in the preparatory department, but 

 regular college classes were organized the fol- 

 lowing year, and in 1835 the school of theology 

 was established. In 1867 the Oberlin Con- 

 servatory of Music, one of the best music 

 schools in America, became a regular college 

 department. The Carnegie Foundation for the 

 Advancement of Teaching placed Oberlin on 

 the original list of schools fulfilling its require- 



