333 



advice of the astronomer Sosigenes *, who, born 

 in Egypt, could not be ignorant of the division 

 of the ecliptic used in the east. There is how- 

 ever no need -f of raising doubts respecting the 

 high antiquity of the sign of the Balance, to 

 weaken the unfounded hypothesis, according to 

 which a temple of Upper Egypt was built more 

 than four thousand years before our sera. 



Struck with the analogy that exists between 

 the denominations of the nacshatras, and those 

 of several signs of the zodiac of Thibet and of 

 Greece, I have examined whether the constella- 

 tions, which bear the same name, correspond to 

 the same points of the heavens : and I find they 

 do not, whether we suppose, that the first 

 nacshatra, known under the denomination of 

 the Horse, is the Horse of the Thibetan zodiac, 

 and consequently the Lion of the Greek zodiac ; 

 or whether we admit with Sir W. Jones and Mr. 

 ColebrookeJ, that the commencement of the 

 nacshatras is placed in the sign of the Ram, 

 which is the Dog of the Thibetan zodiac. This 

 last hypothesis would seem probable only if the 

 lunar houses were reckoned contrary to the order 



* Buttman, in Ideler, Hist. Unt. p. 372—370. 



f See a learned treatise by Visconti, inserted in the trans- 

 lation of Herodotus by Larcher (2d ed.), Tom, 2, p. 576 ; 

 and Visconti, Misrell. di JVJuseo Pio — Clementino, Tom. 6, 

 p, 25, note, e. 



\ .Asiatic Researches, Vol. 9, p. 118. 



