December 28, 1893] 



NA TURE 



201 



star to which they pointed to show whence they came or 

 made a god.^ 



It will have been gathered that the constellations of 

 the Bull and the Scorpion were recognised as such at the 

 same early date both in Babylonia and Egypt, and this of 

 course implies intercommunication. 



The ecliptic stars in use in Babylonia in later times are 

 as follows - : — 



With regard to the complete ecliptic, the information 

 seems meagre both from Babylonia and from Egypt in 

 early times. 



As to later times in Babylonia — say i ooo B.C. — the follow- 

 ing list represents the results of Jensen's investigations : — 



(i) Perhaps Aries (= " leading sheep "). 



(2) A "Bull (of the Heavens)" = Aldebaran or (and) = our 

 Taurus. 



(3) Gemini. 



(4) ? 



(5) Perhaps Leo. 



(6) The constellation of the "corn in ears " = the ear of corn. 

 [Spica.] 



(7) Pi-obably Libra, whose stars are, however, at least in 

 general, called "the claw(s) " {Le. of the Scorpion). 



(8) The Scorpion. 



(9) Perhaps Sagittarius. 



(10) The "goat fish" — caper. 

 (II)? 



(12) The "Fish" with the "Fish band." 



In Egypt we find no such sharp references as the above 

 to either the poles or the great circles, but dating from the 

 twentieth dynasty (iioo B.C.), and therefore almost con- 

 temporaneous, is a series of star tables which have puzzled 

 Egyptologists from Champollion and Biot downwards. 



Looking at them they seem to be observations of stars 

 made during the twelve hours of the night on the ist 

 and i6th of every month. The chief stars seem to be 

 twenty-four in number, and it looked at first as if we had 

 really here a list of priceless value of twenty-four either 

 ecliptic or equatorial stars. 



Unfortunately, however, the list has resisted all efforts 

 to completely understand it. Whether it is a list of risings 

 or meridian passages even is still in dispute. Quite 

 recently, indeed, one of the investigators, Herr Gustav 

 Bilfinger,^has not hesitated to consider it not a list of ob- 

 servations at all, but a compilation for a special purpose. 



" The star-table is intended to carry the principle of time 

 into the rigid world of the grave, and represents over the 

 sepulchral vault, ' the eternal horizon ' as the ancient 

 Egyptians so aptly styled the grave, an imitation of the 

 sky, a compensation for the sky of the upper world with 

 its time-measuring motion ; yet the idea here is bolder, 

 the execution is more artificial and complicated, since the 

 sculptor endeavoured to combine the daily and the 

 annual motion of the celestial vault in one picture ; 

 wanted to transfer into the grave the temporal frames in 

 which all human life is enacted. This endeavour to re- 

 present by one configuration both motions and both 



1 For the story as told by Beroasas, see Sayce, p. 131. 

 - " Astronomisches aus Babylon," pp. 117-133. 



3 "Die Sterntafein in den iigyptischen Konigsgriibern von Biban el 

 Molflk " . — von Gustav Bilfinger (p. 69). 



NO. 



T261, VOL. 49] 



chronological units explains all the peculiarities and im- 

 perfections of our star-table. 



"The simplest means of representing both motions 

 was found in the stars, which circle the earth in the 

 course of a day and indicate the year by the successive 

 appearance of new stars in the morning twilight. If the 

 same stars were to serve both purposes in one repre- 

 sentation, it was necessary to take twenty-four stars which 

 rose at intervals of fifteen days, since only such followed 

 each other at an average distance of 15^, and were there- 

 fore useful for showing the hours." 



"If the calendar-maker really possessed a list of the 

 twenty-four principal (zodiacal) stars, the course of the 

 year was indicated thereby ; but since he also wanted to 

 represent the daily motion, he might with some justice 

 have composed each night out of eleven of these stars, 

 since the stars' risings are only visible during the ten 

 middle hours of the night. But ten hours would not have 

 adequately represented the night, since this was thought 

 of as a twelve hours' interval. 



" There was a way out of it, viz. to call hora o ' sun- 

 set,' hora 12 ' sunrise,' which would have been a simple 

 and correct solution if the division of the night into 

 twelve parts for practical purposes had been aimed at. 

 But this expedient he could not adopt, because he could 

 or would only operate with stars, and the notions of sun- 

 rise and sunset found no place in his tables. Thus he 

 was forced to falsify the customary division of the hours, 

 by squeezing the twelve hours of the night into the time 

 during which star risings are visible, viz. the dark night 

 exclusive of twilight. On the other hand he could not, 

 with his principal stars at intervals of 15", divide his 

 night, shortened as it was by two hours^ into twelve 

 parts, and thus he was obliged to make use of two or 

 three auxiliary stars, as we have proved in detail above, 

 and thus yet more to disfigure the hour-division, since 

 thereby the lengths of the hours were made very vari- 

 able. These are then two things which we must not re- 

 gard as peculiarities of ancient Egyptian reckoning, but 

 as a consequence of the leading idea of our table, which 

 did not intend to facilitate the division of the night into 

 twelve parts by star observations, but was calculated by 

 the connection of thirteen stars with thirteen successive 

 moments to create the idea of the circling host of stars 

 and thence the course of the night." 



I give an abstract of the list of the twenty-four principal 

 stars and the constellations in which they occur : — 



1. Sahu = Orion. 



2. Gothis = Sirius. 



3. The two stars. 



4. The stars of the water. 



5. The lion. 



6. The many stars. 



7. Mena's herald. 



8. Mena. 



9. Mena's followers. 



\l\ . 



12. ; Hippopotamus. 



13-1 

 14.; 



15- 

 16. 



17- 

 18. 



19- 



20. 



21. Ari. 



22. 



23- . 



24. Sahu = Head of Orion. 



It will be seen that this Egyptian star list is very in- 

 determinate, but there are other lists, which are much 

 more definite, represented by the Indian Nakshatras, the 

 Arab Manazil al-Kamar, and the Chinese Sieu. 



Necht. 



Goose. 



