336 
of the nacshatras, when a part only was employed 
to form the solar zodiac. 
This intimate connexion between the lunar 
mansions and the signs of the zodiac is moreover 
evident in the names given by the Hindoos to the 
months and the years. These names, according 
to the curious investigations of Mr. Davis are 
not those of the dodecateinoria of the solar zo- 
diac ; they are taken from the nacshatras them- 
selves, each month bearing the name of the 
lunar mansion, in which the full moon occurs. 
We have seen farther back, that at Thibet, in 
China, and among the Tartar nations, each year 
of the five indictions of the great cycle bears the 
name of one of the 12 animals of the solar zo- 
diac. Among the Hindoos, the years take the 
name of the nacshatras in which Jupiter is at his 
heliacal rising. It is thus that Aswini (horse) 
or Magha (house) is the name of a year, of a 
month, and of a tithy, or lunar day ; as at Mexico 
the sign tochtU (rabbit) or calli (house) presides 
at the same time over the year, the half lunation, 
and the day. 
From the whole of these considerations it 
follov/s, that the division of the ecliptic into 
twelve signs probably had its origin from the 
division into 27 or 28 lunar mansions ; and that 
* On the cycle of sixty years, Asiat. Res. vol. 3, p. 217 — 
261. 
A 
