apartments of the emperor, and the inside and outside of many of the public buildings. The globular balls with which they are frequently furnished in their mouths, may allude to the sun, which, in the tropic of Cancer, comes up to the Isle of Formosa, near to, or at, the lion's mouth. Fig. 154 gives a view of the sign or constellation of the Lion, as drawn from such its prototype in the map.

Virgo. Westward of China lies the peninsula of India, with the Isle of Ceylon. In the zodiac, the frontispiece of this volume, the sign Virgo is represented with her back towards us, and looking backwards; and if the map of the countries last named be turned upside down, so as to be viewed backwards, (or in other words, with the south uppermost,) it will be found that they together exhibit a very plain likeness of a female kneeling down. The head and face are formed by the Isle of Ceylon, and front the east; the shoulders, stooping, are at Cape Comorin; the hands and arms seem to be folded upon her breast, under a robe, and to extend from Madras to Tanjore; the robe appears to fall forwards before her, about Bengal; while her foot, with the heel upwards, as of a person kneeling, is formed by the peninsula of Guzerate. This nun-like figure I take to have been the original prototype of the sign

Virgo; its attitude well corresponding with that religious piety for which the Bramins, and indeed the Indians in general, have in all ages been remarkable. In the calendar at the beginning of an old missal, at the head of the month corresponding with the sign Virgo, I remember having seen a female figure in this attitude; but in the zodiac in front of this volume, there are but two circumstances that seem to lead to the conclusion, that the prototype of Virgo is to be found in India; first, that she has an ear of Indian corn in one of her hands, and secondly, that her other hand is in the attitude of pointing to, or indicating something; this last circumstance, (for reasons collateral only to the present inquiry,) I apprehend to allude to the general resemblance which India, viewed upside down, bears to the shape of a quadrant, or sextant, the instrument used for the indication of longitudes at sea. After the proofs offered in a former volume, to shew that the ancients were well acquainted with the telescope, the conclusion will be liable to somewhat less of doubt, that they had a knowledge of the quadrant, or sextant, also; but I do not enter upon that question now, further than to mention that such a conclusion would give an interpretation of the term ayyɛλos, and so explain the reason why this sign is drawn in the zodiac in the fron

tispiece as an angel with wings; that is to say, from the triangular shape of India, or more particularly, from its southern angle, ayyɛños. It may be further worth while to remark, that our technical name of spinster, to designate a virgin or unmarried person, seems to be drawn from the name of this sign as representing India, a country which in all ages has been singularly remarkable for the exercise of its industry in the spinning and manufacture of linen, or rather cotton, cloths. Virgo is copied from her prototype in the map, in

Fig. 155.

Libra. This next sign, I apprehend, to have its prototype in a vast tract of sea and land, situate to the west of that of the sign Virgo. This tract comprizes the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea, with the land and rivers interven

ing; the whole of which together, has a strong resemblance to a pair of scales, of which the handle is formed by the gulf of Bothnia; the beam, by the Baltic, as extending from Denmark to Petersburg; the scales, by the Black Sea, and the Caspian; and the lines that connect the scales with the beam, by the rivers that fall severally into the two last mentioned seas; the whole agreeing with

Fig. 156.

as drawn from such its prototype. And if the reader is put in mind that Tornea, in the gulf of Bothnia, (which, so situate, comes exactly at the top of the handle of the beam,) is close to the solstitial circle, and that it is from that circle as its limit that the sun returns back again towards the southern solstice, he will admit, probably, the aptness of a pair of scales to express, as a symbol, the libration of the earth attendant

upon such motion of the sun, which takes place in that sign.

Scorpio. By a still further progress to the westward, we shall come to the prototype of the sign Scorpio, as comprizing Italy, France, and the Bay of Biscay, with a portion of Spain; the interval between the two arms of the Scorpion corresponds with the semicircular outline of the Bay of Biscay, the borders of which bay constitute those arms; that on the left terminating in the double harbour of Toulon and Corunna, in Spain, and so answering to the left claw of the Scorpion; and the right, in the double harbour of Brest, and the contiguous little bay of Douarnenez in France, answering to its right claw; the body of the Scorpion is formed by France itself, and the tail by Italy, turning up in a curve, at its extremity in Calabria, the whole as commonly drawn in the sign, and represented in

Fig. 157.