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it otherwise to be appropriate. The lions and lions' heads appear 

 throughout Egypt in the very earliest sculptures, to have been 

 generally taken for their ornamental fountains. We should 

 have been puzzled to have found any reason for such a choice, 

 though now become very common amongst modern nations, 

 but for the reason assigned by Horapollo and other ancient 

 writers, who distinctly assure us that they were so chosen be- 

 cause in early times the annual overflow of the Nile took place 

 when the sun was in the constellation of the Lion, wliich in 

 those days, say they, was exactly at the season of the summer sol- 

 stice. I was looking for an illustration of this remarkable fact, 

 when I thought of the celebrated fountain of lions in the hall 

 of the Alhambra. But it seemed difficult to connect this with 

 tlie overflow of the Nile at the time of the summer solstice in 

 Egypt. The Moors, it was true, had overrun Egypt, and 

 brought from thence all their astronomical ideas, but the posi- 

 tive proof of the connexion was needed. Judge, therefore, of 

 my delight, when on reading the inscriptions carved upon this 

 fountain, I found the two following, — " See, the water flows 

 copiously (or overflows) like the Nile," and " the Nile gives 

 glory to the King, and the lofty mountains proclaim it." 

 Here then we have an undoubted proof of the Egyptian origin 

 of all our lion fountains, in every one of which we have a per- 

 petual memorial that there was once a time when the summer 

 solstice was in the zodiacal constellation of the Lion. Li an 

 Indian zodiac of great antiquity, in which the signs are sur- 

 rounded by representations of the planets, the sun is painted 

 on the top seated on the Lion. Even after astronomy began 

 to decline, and to be perverted to the superstitions of astro- 

 logy, the old monuments which marked the ancient positions 

 of the equinox would continue to be quoted, long after 

 they had ceased to be astronomically correct. A remarkable 

 instance of the popular retention of these ancient periods 

 is to be found in the very lines of Virgil, who hved after 

 tlie equinox had left the Bull and the Ram, but who, never- 



