140 REMARKS on the 



into twenty-feven equal parts. The moon too, it muft be re- 

 membered, was, at that time, the only inftrument, if we may 

 fay fo, by which the pofitions of the ftars on each fide of her 

 path could be afcertained ; and when her own irregularities 

 were unknown, Ihe was, by the rapidity of her motion eaft- 

 ward, well adapted for this purpofe. It is alfo to the phafes of 

 the moon, that we are to afcribe the common divifion of time 

 into weeks, or portions of feven days, which feems to have 

 prevailed almoft over the whole earth *. The days of the 

 week are dedicated by the Brahmins, as by us, to the feven 

 planets, and what is truly fingular, they are arranged precifely 

 in the fame order. 



7. With the conftellations, that diftinguifh the twenty-feven 

 equal fpaces, into which their zodiac is divided, the Aftxonomers 

 of India have connected none of thofe figures of animals, 

 which are among us, of fo ancient, and yet fo arbitrary an ori- 

 ginal. M. le Gentil has given us their names, and configu- 

 rations f. They are formed, for the mofl part, of fmall groups 

 of ftars, fuch as the Pleiades or the Hyades, thofe belonging to 

 the fame conftellation being all connected by ftraight lines. 

 The firft of them, or that which is placed at the beginning of 

 their zodiac, confifts of fix ftars, extending from the head of 

 Aries to the foot of Andromeda, in our zodiac, and occupying 

 a fpace of about ten degrees in longitude. Thefe conftellations 

 are far from including all the ftars in the zodiac. M. le 

 Gentil remarks, that thofe ftars feem to have been felecled, 

 which are beft adapted for marking out, by lines drawn be- 

 tween them, the places of the moon in her progrefs through 

 the heavens. 



At the fame time that the ftars in the zodiac are thus ar- 

 ranged into twenty-feven conftellations, the ecliptic is divided, 

 as with us, into twelve figns of thirty degrees each. This di- 

 vifion 



* Mem. Acad, des Scien. 1772. II. P. 189. 

 \ Ibid, 209. 



