396 PLEASANT WA YS IN SCIENCE. 



the Bestiar}'.* "Twelve months or signs in three rows." 

 Smith takes the three rows to mean (i.) the zodiacal signs, 

 (ii.) the constellations north of the zodiac, and (iii.) the 

 constellations south of the zodiac. But this does not. agree 

 with the words " twelve signs in three rows." Possibly the 

 reference is to three circles, two bounding the zodiac on the 

 north and south respectively, the third central, the ecliptic, 

 or track of the sun ; or the two tropics and the equator may 

 have been signified. Instead of " twelve signs in three rows," 

 we should, probably, read "twelve signs along a triple band." 

 The description was written long after astronomical temples 

 were first erected, and as the designer of a zodiacal dome 

 like that (far more recently) erected at Denderah would set 

 the twelve zodiacal signs along a band formed by three 

 parallel circles, marking its central line and its northern and 

 southern limits, so we can understand the writer of the 

 tablet presenting the celestial architect as working in the 

 same lines, on a grander scale ; setting the twelve zodiacal 

 signs on the corresponding triple band in the heavens them- 

 selves. 



The next point to be noticed in the Babylonian astrology 



The following passage from Admiral Smyth's Bedford Catalogue 

 is worth noticing in this connection : " We find that both the Chinese 

 and the Japanese had a zodiac consisting of animals, as zodiacs needs 

 must, among which they placed a tiger, a peacock, a cat, an alligator, 

 a duck, an ape, a hog, a rat, and what not. Animals also formed the 

 Via Solis of the Kirghis, the Mongols, the Persians, the Mantshus, and 

 the ancient Turks ; and the Spanish monks in the army of Cortes found 

 that the Mexicans had a zodiac with strange creatures in the depart- 

 ments. Such a striking similitude is assuredly indicative of a common 

 origin, since the coincidences are too exact in most instances to be the 

 effect of chance ; but where this origin is to be fixed has been the 

 subject of interminable discussions, and learning, ignorance, sagacity v 

 and prejudice have long been in battle array against each other. 

 Diodorus Siculus considers it to be Babylonian, but Bishop Warburton, 

 somewhat dogmatically tells us, ' Brute worship gave rise to the 

 Egyptian asterisms prior to the time of Moses. ' " There is now, of 

 course, very little reason for questioning that Egyptian astronomy was 

 borrowed from Babylon. 



