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sculptures of Nineveh we find the winged horse, the Pegasus, as 

 we find winged bulls without any alteration in the heads where 

 the zodiacal sign is simply intended. Add now one of the very 

 king's heads which we have just spoken of in the sun, and we 

 have a very tolerable Sagittarius. We have only therefore to 

 suppose the original sign to have been a horse, and the forma- 

 tion of the Sagittarius is complete. It is the same with the fish. 

 In places abounding in fish, the sign which proclaimed the 

 prevalence of the waters and the great fishing season, would 

 be the one in which the sun would be implored to shine pro- 

 pitiously ; and the favorite form of Baal in such places, would 

 be that of the Fish-God of Dagon, at Dorcetus — of Vishnu 

 in India, and of our Mermaid, but which was in truth the 

 king's head on the sign of the Fish. A curious representa- 

 tion of two fish- men, is given in Calmet's dictionary, in 

 which the attitude of reverence to an aged man, combined 

 with the dove, bearing over it the emblem of the sun, appears 

 to connect it with the assuaging of the waters during the 

 month the sun was in the sign of the Fish. 



And surely, when we have seen instances of such an appli- 

 cation of this sacred emblem to so many other signs, we shall 

 not hesitate to express our firm conviction that it would be 

 much more universally applied to those two great and most 

 important signs, the Lion and the Bull, which all antiquity 

 unites in placing first amongst its sculptured monuments. 

 What origin of these remarkable monuments, the winged lion 

 and the winged bull of Nineveh, can we conceive more simple, 

 or more probable ? We have in them nothing but the flatter- 

 ing, yet consistent emblems, which the Sabaean idolatry would 

 choose and create, as descriptive of the attributes of royalty. 

 The winged Baal in the chamber of the vernal equinox, so 

 forcibly expressive of the goodness, clemency, and paternal 

 government of the monarch : the sun, in the fierce sign of 

 raging heat at the summer solstice, no less descriptive of his 

 majesty, and power, and terror to his enemies. Thus placed at 



