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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



stories afterward to fit the pictures, probably 

 many generations afterward. Be this as it may, 

 we can at present give no satisfactory account of 

 the group of constellations. 



AVilford describes, in his " Asiatic Research- 

 es," a conversation with a pundit or astronomer 

 respecting the names of the Indian constellations. 

 " Asking him," he says, " to show me in the 

 heavens the constellation Antarmada, he imme- 

 diately pointed to Andromeda, though I had not 

 given him any information about it beforehand. 

 He afterward brought me a very rare and curious 

 work in Sanskrit, which contained a chapter de- 

 voted to Upanachatras, or extra-zodiacal constel- 

 lations, with drawings of Capuja (Cepheus) and 

 of Casyapi (Cassiopeia) seated and holding a 

 lotus-flower in her hand, of Antarmada chained 

 with the Fish beside her, and last of Paraseia 

 (Perseus), who, according to the explanation of 

 the book, held the head of a monster which he 

 had slain in combat ; blood was dripping from it, 

 and for hair it had snakes." Some have inferred, 

 from the circumstance that the Indian charts 

 thus showed the Cassiopeian set of constellations, 

 that the origin of these figures is to be sought in 

 India. But probably both the Indian and the 

 Greek constellation-figures were derived from a 

 much older source. 



The zodiacal twelve are in some respects the 

 most important and interesting of all the ancient 

 constellations. If we could determine the origin 

 of these figures, their exact configuration as at 

 first devised, and the precise influences assigned 

 to them in the old astrological systems, we should 

 have obtained important evidence as to the origin 

 of astronomy itself. Not, indeed, that the twelve 

 signs of the zodiac were formed at the beginning 

 or even in the early infancy of astronomy. It 

 seems abundantly clear that the division of the 

 zodiac (which includes the moon's track as well 

 as the sun's) had reference originally to the 

 moon's motions. She circuits the star-sphere in 

 about twenty-seven and a third days, while the 

 lunation or interval from new moon to new moon 

 is, as we all know, about twenty-nine and a half 

 days in length. It would appear that the ear- 

 liest astronomers, who were of course astrologers 

 also, of all nations— the Indian, Egyptian, Chi- 

 nese, Persian, and Chaldean astronomers — adopt- 

 ed twenty-eight days (probably as a rough mean 

 between the two periods just named) as their chief 

 lunar period, and divided the moon's track round 

 the ecliptic into twenty-eight portions or man- 

 sions. How they managed about the fractions of 

 days outstanding — whether the common lunation 



was considered or the moon's motion round the 

 star-sphere — is not known. The very circum- 

 stance, however, that they were for a long time 

 content with their twenty-eight lunar mansions 

 shows that they did not seek great precision at 

 first. Doubtless they employed some rough sys- 

 tem of "leap-months" by which, as occasion re- 

 quired, the progress of the month was reconciled 

 with the progress of the moon, just as by our 

 leap-years the progress of the year is reconciled 

 with the progress of the sun or seasons. 



The use of the twenty-eight-day period nat- 

 urally suggested the division of time into weeks 

 of seven days each. The ordinary lunar month 

 is divided in a very obvious manner into four 

 equal parts by the lunar aspects. Every one can 

 recognize roughly the time of full moon and the 

 times of half-moon before and after full, while 

 the time of new moon is recognized from these 

 last two epochs. Thus the four quarters of the 

 month, or roughly the four weeks of the month, 

 would be the first time measure thought of, after 

 the day, which is the necessary foundation of all 

 time measures. The nearest approach which can 

 be made to a quarter-month in days is the week 

 of seven days ; and although some little awkward- 

 ness arose from the fact that four weeks differ 

 appreciably from a lunar month, this would not 

 long prevent the adoption of the week as a meas- 

 ure of time. In fact, just as our years begin on 

 different days of the week without causing any 

 inconvenience, so the ancient months might be 

 made to begin with different week-days. All that 

 would be necessary to make the week measure 

 fairly well the quarters of the month, would be 

 to start each month on the proper or nearest 

 week-day. To inform people about this some 

 ceremony could he appointed for the day of the 

 new moon, and some signal employed to indicate 

 the time when this ceremony was to take place. 

 This — the natural and obvious course — we find, 

 was the means actually adopted, the festival of 

 the new moon and the blowing of trumpets in 

 the new moon being an essential part of the ar- 

 rangements adopted by nations who adopted the 

 week as a chief measure of time. The seven days 

 were not affected by the new moons so far as the 

 nomenclature of these days, or special duties 

 connected with any one of them, might be con- 

 cerned. Originally the idea may have been to 

 have festivals and sacrifices at the time of new 

 moon, first quarter, full moon, and third quarter; 

 but this arrangement would naturally (and did, as 

 we know, actually) give way before long to a new- 

 moon festival regulating the month, and seven 



