238 History of Astronomy for the Year 1806. 



observations connected with it, according to the Egyptians, 

 the Chinese, the Persians, the Arabians, the Chaldeans, and 

 the Greeks. 



This zodiac, which has been engraved in a very superior 

 manner at the expense of M. Volney, contains the 27 

 iiatchtrons of the Indians, the 28 under the Chinese, the 

 28 kordens of the Persians ; that is to say, the houses which 

 the moon passes through in a month : and the learned au- 

 thor has drawn from these comparisons results which are 

 extremely carious, in-so-far as the antiquity of these various 

 zodiacs is concerned ; among others this important idea, 

 that we ought not to confine ourselves to the observations 

 which have been transmitted to us; the initial point of the 

 division being more antient, while we have only been able 

 to date it from the equinoxes and solstices 4700 years before 

 the vulgar aera. 



This gives him the explanation of the Indian fables of 

 the Phoenix, which is only the period of 1460 years, and 

 several other curious points of erudition. He is at present 

 occupied with his collection of thirty theogonies, in order to 

 complete his great work on the origin of the diflerent reli- 

 gions. He remarks, for example, that Adam and Eve are 

 the constellations of Charles's wain and of Virgo, each of 

 which has a serpent, and which are near the autumnal 

 equinox. When Adam rises, Eve seems to follow him, and 

 she announces the entrance of evil into the world. 



There has been printed in the 47lh volume of the Aca- 

 demy of Inscriptions, a long memoir of M. de Guignes on 

 the origin of the zodiac of the orientalists, extracted from a 

 distinct work concerning the Egyptians and Chinese, not 

 yet printed. He thinks that the Greeks, for want of being 

 better acquainted with what the Egyptians taught as to the 

 course of nature, formed a zodiac ; but the names of the 

 Ram, the Bull, &c. are not names of constellations ; it is a 

 division of the year into twelve parts, corresponding to the 

 productions of the earth and the influence of the sun. We 

 see throughout the whole of the east a crowd of constella- 

 tions^ which take up the places of the Ram, &c. : these 



signs, 



