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the different divisions of the ecliptic, and the 

 signs that preside, in both continents, over the 

 years, the months, the days, and the hours, we 

 find the following results. Among the nations 

 that have turned their attention to the starry 

 vault, the lunar zodiac, divided into twenty-seven 

 or twenty-eight mansions, is more ancient than 

 the zodiac in twelve parts, which, from being at 

 first only a zodiac of full-moons, is become a 

 solar zodiac. The names of the months are 

 sometimes chosen among the lunar mansions, as 

 with the Hindoos ; at other times they are those 

 of the dodecatemorions, as in the Dionysian 

 year. On the banks of the Ganges, they still 

 say, the months Arrow, House, or Head of the 

 Antelope; as in the time of Ptolemy-Philadelphus 

 they said at Alexandria, the months Didymon, 

 Parthenon. andAegon, months of the Twins, the 

 Virgin, and Capricorn *. An intimate connex- 

 ion is observed between the names of the dodeca- 

 temorions and those of the nacshatras : among 

 several nations, the latter have passed to the 

 lunar days. Beside the real division of the 

 ecliptic, which is a zone of the starry heaven, 

 there still exists, and especially in Eastern Asia, 

 divisions of the time, which the Sun employs in 

 returning nearly to the same stars, or the same 

 point of the horizon. These cycles, generally 



* Ideler, Hist. Untersuch., s. 264. 

 VOL. XIII. B B 



