36 ^ 
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, and Aegon, 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. 
von. XIII. B B 
