AXUM. 
181 
which, however, I was glad to find that I had little alteration to 
make. 
" We again searched more accurately for Bruce's inscription ; but 
nothing like it was to be found. After dinner we proceeded to the 
obelisks, measuring and examining all of them, beginning with the 
westernmost one. There are seven large ones, as we now discovered, 
all ornamented nearly in the same manner as the one now standing ; 
the smallest is thirty-six feet long, but the dimensions of the largest 
considerably exceed the erect one. Behind these is another small 
fallen one, which has almost completely buried itself, on w^iich a 
shield is sculptured. It was dark by the time we returned. 
''• October 19. — We proceeded at daybreak to the inscription, 
and examined it letter by letter, Captain Rudland having one of 
my copies in his hand, and Mr. Garter another, which they cor- 
rected as 1 read it over. We found at the bottom of the stone several 
more letters than we had at first been able to trace, but not an 
entire line ; and it now appeared that we had the whole of the 
inscription. 
" For the purpose of elucidating the contents of this inscription, a 
copy of it is given, etched by myself, in which I have endeavoured, 
as far as was practicable, to give the precise form of each of the 
letters, several of which, from the effects of time, were dubious. 
Many errors of course occurred ; but these have proceeded almost 
entirely from the similarity of some of the Greek characters, used 
in the inscription, to each other, as alpha (A) and (A) lambda, epsi- 
lon (E) and (2) sigma, gamma (r) and rho (P), kappa (K) and beta 
(B), delta (A) and lambda (A), omicron (O) and (0) theta. All these 
difficulties I have been fortunate enough, 'try attention to the sub- 
