Zodiacal synonyms

The question whether the Gegenschein can be accounted for by the reflection of light from the same matter as the zodiacal band is still unsettled.

The Hare (or Rabbit), Monkey, Dog and Serpent reappeared without change; for the Tiger, Crocodile and Hen, unknown in America, the Ocelot, Lizard and Eagle were substituted as analogous.6 The Aztec calendar dated from the 7th century; but the zodiacal tradition embodied by it was doubtless much more ancient.

They exhibit in an exaggerated form the irregularities of distribution visible in our zodiacal constellations, and present the further anomaly of being frequently reckoned as twenty-eight in number, while the ecliptical arcs they characterize are invariably twenty-seven.

The arrangement would have been correct about 2300 B.C.; it would scarcely have been possible after 1800 B.C. 3 We find nowhere else a well-authenticated zodiacal sequence corresponding to so early a date.

The correspondence does not, however, extend to the stars; and some coincidences adverted to by Humboldt between the nakshatras and the zodiacal animals of Central Asia are of the same nominal character.