HISTORY IN STAMPS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume III, Issue 189, 26 July 1913, Page 3 (Supplement)

HISTORY IN STAMPS.

Everyone who has collected stamps must have noticed the surprising absence of Sovereigns’ heads from those of turkey, lhat this is so is due to the fact that Mohammedans consider a representation of the human face or figure unlawful. Therefore Turkish stamps carry the crescent, which tho Turks borrowed from the Byzantines after the fall of Constantinople. They hlso used a complicated, arbitrary sign, supposed to bo the signature of th» •Suita;?. and Grecian stamps are pe cuharly expressive of the history of the> countries which they represent. Tho pyramids, the mystie Sphinx, tall palmtrees outlined against the night. s k yj a . tram of camels stopping to drink from the river.A lie, all carry us back to the veiy beginnings of history and remind us that Egypt, the mother of civilisation, is still called by her ancieuu. name, and is yet a growing power in tile world she has known so long . Beautiful, artistic Greece, the homo of beauty, from which our sculptors and' architects draw their finest inspirations, gives us pure classic lines on her stamps, which show 7 the famous discus thrower, Hermes of the winged feet, or a chariot race, or a tall, slim vase, an antique mould. Tho stamps of Persia show the lion and tho sun-—the lion as a symbol of power, and tho sun as an emblem of tho fire worship of the Persians. Korea displays the plum-blossom on her stamps. It is tho royal flower oi her last dynasty—a dynasty which reigned for 500 years, until the hardv little Japanese wrested it away. The Mexican stamp boars the coat of arms of the country, an eagle on a cactus, holding a serpent in its talons rtns device is the outgrowth of a legend that the first Aztec chose the site of their city from seeing an eagle so engaged, and situated at that spot.