49 



of which bore the name of Tetlacmancalme- 

 cac*. 



It is easy to conceive how the divisions of the 

 zodiac, and the names of the signs that presided 

 over the days, the half-lunations, and the years, 

 may have led men to the worship of animals. 

 The nomade tribes reckon by lunations ; they 

 distinguish the moon of the rabbits, that of the 

 tigers, that of the goats, &c, according to the 

 different periods of the year in which the wild 

 or tame animals afford them enjoyments, or 

 inspire them with terror. When by degrees 

 the measures of time become measures of space f, 

 and nations form the dodecate morion of the 

 zodiac of the full moons, the names of the wild 

 and tame animals are transferred to the con- 

 stellations themselves. It is thus that the Tar- 

 tar zodiac, which contains only real may 

 be considered as the zodiac of the hunting and 

 shepherd tribes. The tiger, unknown in Africa, 

 gives it a character exclusively Asiatic. This 

 animal is no longer found in the Chaldean, 

 Egyptian, or Greek zodiac, in which the tiger, 

 the hare, the horse, and the dog, are replaced 

 by the lion of Africa, Thrace, and western Asia, 



* Nieremberg, Hist. Nat. Lib. viii, c. 22, p. 144 . Tor- 

 quemada, lib. II, c. 53; lib. VIII, c. 13 (torn. 1. p. 194 ; 

 torn. 2, p. 291). 



f See vol. xiii, p. 370. 

 VOL. XIV. IS 



