2So TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



the famous historian of the Phoenicians, Sanchuniathon, who 

 (Euseb. P. E. i, lo) says that Taout, i.e. the wise one (nyi. daoth), 

 the tenth descendant of Protogonos, i. e. Adam (Noah was like- 

 wise the tenth descendant of Adam), determined the characters 

 of the sacred alphabet in accordance with the signs of the 

 Zodiac. debz Tdauzo^^ jui/urjad/uvoi; rbu oopavbu, zaJv d^ecbv 

 cxpztc, — Kpbvou re y.al Aayihvoz^ y-o.l zwu kocTicTjv — ocerunoatv zou^ 

 hpoh^ zcou (TiOi^suou ya.po:Az7^pa.^. To wit. " Oipzic, &eiov, □"':d 

 (panim), even mentioned on the Pompeian Tablet, facies of the 

 planets, are the houses of the planets, the 12 signs of the Zodiac. 

 Consequently the first 24 letters of the Noachian alphabet made 

 full the 12 signs, and the 25th letter coincided with n (alpha), the 

 first. 



Further, it is self-evident that the first two letters of the alpha- 

 bet were to be referred to the first sign of the Zodiac, which was, 

 at that time, Taurus. Hence both the first letter of the alphabet 

 and the first sign of the Zodiac were termed 9^^ (alep), taurus. 



Moreover, since the 7 planets of the ancients (Saturn, Jupiter, 

 Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon) constantly occupy certain 

 signs of the Zodiac, it is likewise apparent that the 7 vowels of 

 the ancient alphabets, viz. a ii e e i u^ must have signified the 

 7 planets. Again, from Laurentius Lydas, Nicomachus Harmo- 

 nicos Manuale L. i. & ii., Irenseus c. Her. i. c. 14, 7, Pliny, 

 Pythagoras (Harmon. Man.), from a Leyden papyrus, and the 

 natural consecutions both of the vowels and the planets, we learn 

 that the former expressed the following planets : 



« zz: J), ii—^, e — Q, e = ^ . i=%, o=ll. u — \^ . 



Accordingly, the first letter of the alphabet being referred to 

 the first sign of the Zodiac, Saturn and the moon must have stood 

 in Taurus, and this is confirmed by a very old tradition of the 

 Greeks. They celebrated every 30 years, as often as Saturn re- 

 turned to the sign of Taurus, great festivals in remembrance of 

 the deluge " during which Saturn had appeared in Taurus." 



Now, referring the 7 planets, mentioned in the Noachian alpha- 

 bet, to the aforesaid signs of the Zodiac, we obtain the following 

 planetary configuration, which, as every astronomer knows, can 

 return but after 2146 years, and this refers, as seen by the sub- 

 joined computation, to the year 3446 B.C., Sept. 7. 



