32 



to be a husbandman after the flood — who planted the vine 

 which in the Egyptian hemisphere referred to, actually sup- 

 plies the place of Bootes. By the stars of Bootes the opera- 

 tions of husbandry were in those countries anciently regulated, 

 and thus we have the meaning of that other exclamation in 

 Job, " Canst thou guide Arcturus and his sons ? " Canst thou 

 regulate the rising and setting of the stars of the constellated 

 Noah and his sons ? In this cylinder we have therefore the 

 horoscope of some fortunate Chaldean, at whose birth the 

 principal constellations bare a striking analogy to the assuaging 

 of the waters after the deluge, when the sun coming forth out 

 of Aquarius drives before him the genius of destruction, 

 whilst the Bear, as the representative of the animal species, 

 cringes to the patriarch for protection. 



In the second cylinder, we have on the right the well-known 

 sitting figure of Cassiopea or Cushiopea, the constellated queen 

 of Ethiopia, probably the daughter or wife of Gush, the grand- 

 son of Ham, by whose descendants Ethiopia was peopled. 

 Above we have the seven stars of the Pleiades apparently 

 shedding their propitious influence on the queen — the new 

 moon in the equinoctial sign — whilst the winged sun at the 

 same time appears placed directly over the stem of the singular 

 instrument on the left. This instrument I believe, with 

 Landseer, to be the representation of the graven image of a 

 grove, mentioned so frequently in holy wTit, but the literal 

 translation of which signifies " blessing."""^ The Scripture 

 expressions — " erecting a grove under every green tree" — 

 " He made the graven image of a grove, and worshipped the 

 host of heaven" — " they brought out the grove from the House 

 of the Lord" — being as inapplicable as the Hebrew w^ord to 

 our notions of a grove. Suppose such an instrument in one 

 of the Babylonian chambers of imagery, surrounded by the 



* [Some learned philologists think that the word in the original, Jsheerah, should 

 be preser^'ed as a proper name. It is translated by Gesenins "fortune;" but he 

 views it as synonymous with Asterotli, wife of IJnal.] — Editok. 



