ITS EARLIEST STAGES. 147 



have conceived that this resemblance may be traced 

 also in the Indian and Arabic constellations, at 

 least in those of the zodiac 29 . But while the 

 figures are the same, the names and traditions con- 

 nected with them are different, according to the 

 histories and localities of each country 30 ; the river 

 among the stars which the Greeks called the Eri- 

 danus, the Egyptians asserted to be the Nile. Some 

 conceive that the signs of the zodiac, or path along 

 which the sun and moon pass, had its divisions 

 marked by signs which had a reference to the 

 course of the seasons, to the motion of the sun, or 

 the employments of the husbandman. If we take 

 the position of the heavens, which, from the know- 

 ledge we now possess, we are sure they must have 

 had 15000 years ago, the significance of the signs 

 of the zodiac, in which the sun was, as referred 

 to the Egyptian year, becomes very marked 31 , and 

 has led some to suppose that the zodiac was in- 

 vented at such a period. Others have rejected this 

 as an improbably great antiquity, and have thought 

 it more likely that the constellation assigned to 

 each season was that which at that season rose 

 at the beginning of the night : thus the balance 

 (which is conceived to designate the equality of 

 days and nights) was placed among the stars which 



29 Dupuis, vi. 548. The Indian zodiac contains, in the place 

 of our Capricorn, a ram and a fish, which proves the resem- 

 blance without chance of mistake. Bailly, i. p. 157- 



30 Dupuis, vi. 549. 31 Laplace, Hist. Astron. p. 8. 



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