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Goat is when the sun has attained its highest altitude, from the 

 well known habits of that animal to seek the summits of the rocks 

 and mountains ; Libra (the Scales), when the days and nights are 

 about equally balanced in duration ; the Scorpion records the 

 prevalence of the regularly recurring scorching winds from the 

 desert ; and so on. 



Now the magi discovered that the Nile inundation was 

 preceded by an annual wind blowing from north to south, about 

 the passage of the sun under the stars of Cancer ; and that this 

 wind was preceded by a particularly brilliant star, which was 

 selected as their warning to the people of the coming inundation. 

 This star, because it served as a warning from danger, they depicted 

 as Thayaut, the watch dog, or Anubis, the dog star. In Hebrew 

 it is called Sihor. Its Latin name is that by which it is familiar 

 to us, viz. Sirius. This star is honoured amongst Freemasqns as 

 the great Blazing Star of Freemasonry, and is one of their most 

 ancient and honoured symbols. The wind to which I have 

 alluded, and the return wind which stopped the inundation and 

 drove the waters back, they typified by two birds — the Hawk and 

 the Hoop or Hoophoe. The Hawk, because at the return of mild 

 weather it is the habit of that bird to make her way south, with her 

 wings spread towards the quarter from whence the warm air comes ; 

 the Hoop, on the contrary, wings her way from south to north, 

 living on the small worms which are hatched in great numbers in 

 the mud left behind by the inundations of the Nile. The symbols 

 bearing on this subject are very numerous, and were used by the 

 magi as means of warning. The Dog Star was symbolized in a 

 variety of ways, but the commonest was the figure of a man, with 

 the head of a dog. This figure, exhibited in suitable localities, 

 gave warning of the coming inundation. It bore on its arm a 

 kettle or porridge pot, to indicate that provisions were necessary. 

 Wings on his feet denoted the urgency of flight ; in one hand he 

 holds a feather, and behind him a tortoise or a duck is placed— 

 both amphibious animals — typical of the coming inroad of water. 

 Another common means of expressing the rising of the water was 

 by lines in the form of a cross, and surmounted by a globe or 



