o which there is less objection than to a change
thrusting part of the constellations below the horizon. Still it may be
doubted whether the place where the constellations were first formed was
less than 32 or 33 degrees north of the equator. The Great Pyramid, as
we know, is about 30 degrees north of the equator; but we also know that
its architects travelled southwards to find a suitable place for it. One
of their objects may well have been to obtain a fuller view of the
star-sphere south of their constellations. I think from 35 to 39 degrees
north would be about the most probable limits, and from 32 to 41 degrees
north the certain limits of the station of the first founders of solar
zodiacal astronomy.

What their actual station may have been is not so easily established.
Some think the region lay between the sources of the Oxus (Amoor) and
Indus, others that the station of these astronomers was not very far
from Mount Ararat--a view to which I was led long ago by other
considerations discussed in the first appendix to my treatise on 'Saturn
and its System.'

At the epoch indicated, the first constellation of the zodiac was not,
as now, the Fishes, nor, as when a fresh departure was made by
Hipparchus, the Ram, but the Bull, a trace of which is found in Virgil's
words--

Candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus annum Taurus.

The Bull then was the spring sign, the Pleiades and ruddy Aldebaran
joining their rays with the sun's at the time of the vernal equinox. The
midsummer sign was the Lion (the bright Cor Leonis nearly marking the
sun's highest place). The autumn sign was the Scorpion, the ruddy
Antares and the stars clustering in the head of the Scorpion joining
their rays with the sun's at the time of the autumnal equinox. And
lastly the winter sign was the Water Bearer, the bright Fomalhaut
conjoining his rays with the sun's at midwinter. It is noteworthy that
all these four constellations really present some resemblance to the
objects after which they are named. The Scorpion is in the best drawing,
but the Bull's head is well marked, and, as already mentioned, a leaping
lion can be recognised. The streams of stars from the Urn of Aquarius
and the Urn itself are much better defined than the Urn Bearer.

I have not left myself much space to speak of the finest of all the
constellations, the glorious Orion--the Giant in his might, as he was
called of old. In this noble asterism the figure of a giant ascending a