Egypt has her sphynx and pyramids; Greece an artistic series of pictures of her famous statues and ruins.  Fiji shows a pirogue, the native canoe, rudely shaped from a tree trunk and hollowed out by fire.  Labuan has a piratical looking native dhow.  The stamps of Rhodesia and the Congo Free State depict the advance of civilization on the dark continent.  History is sumptuously illustrated in the series of stamps issued by our Government to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the new world by Columbus and to celebrate the settlement and growth of the great west.  Portugal also has celebrated, in an elaborate issue of stamps, the voyage of Vasco da Gama to India.  Other countries have been quite too ready to do likewise until we have feared we were in danger of being drowned in the flood of commemorative and celebration stamps, many of which we felt were designed to replenish an empty treasury rather than to honor the glorious deeds of the past.

[Illustration:  Stamp, “St. Vincent”, 5 shilling]

[Illustration:  Stamp, “Republique Francaise”, 1]

[Illustration:  Stamp, “Cape of Good Hope”, 1 penny]

[Illustration:  Stamp, “Trinidad”]

[Illustration:  Stamp, “British East Africa”, 1/2 Anna]

Quite a number of stamps have allegorical designs.  One of the most beautiful examples comes from St. Vincent.  Familiar figures to philatelists are those of Peace and Commerce on the stamps of France, Hope with her anchor on the issues of the Cape of Good Hope and Britannia on several of the British Colonies.  The stamps of British East Africa bear a flaming sun and the legend “light and liberty,” typical of the light of civilization and progress now dawning upon that part of the world.  And on one of the late issues of Portugal is a beautiful allegory of the muse of history watching Da Gama’s voyage to the East.

[Illustration:  Stamp, “Portugal”, 1498-1898, 23 reis]

[Illustration:  Stamp, Greece]

[Illustration:  Stamp, “Uruguay”, 50 centesimos]

[Illustration:  Stamp, “Barbados”, 1/2 penny]

From allegory to mythology is but a step.  Greece has long displayed on her stamps the winged head of Mercury and Uruguay has given us a dainty picture of the messenger of the gods.  The late issues of Barbados have a picture of Amphitrite, the spouse of Neptune, in her chariot drawn by sea-horses.  The handsome stamps of the United States, intended for the payment of postage on newspapers and periodicals bear the pictures of nine of the goddesses of Grecian mythology.  The stamps of China, Shanghai and Japan introduce subjects from oriental myths.  This is not a pussy cat in a fit or trying to dance a pas seul on the end of its tail.  It is one of the most venerated of the Chinese dragons.  One of its provinces is to guard the sacred crystal of life.  It has a human head, the wings of a bird, the claws of a tiger and the tail of a serpent.