Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/707

Rh upon some of the Ta-Shan Mountains, which compose the nucleus of that island, the forms of men and figures of gods. But this is an isolated case.

When we pass to uranography, the figurative system becomes generally applied. It is well understood that the Greeks borrowed from the Chaldeans the general idea if not the details of their astronomy; and we accept their pictured sphere. Other peoples of antiquity likewise had their figured spheres, formed on the same principle—only the stars were differently grouped by each people according to its fancy, and the symbols chosen were different. Nothing better proves the independence of these constructions than this, but nothing also is more suited to exhibit what there is remarkable in this community of systems.

The Egyptians had a pictured sphere in very ancient times. Signs of it may be seen in the tomb of Seti I, at Biban-el-Moluk, and considerable developments of it in the calendar sculptured on the ceiling of the tomb of Ramses IV, at Medinet Abou. There are on this monument, which is of the thirteenth century, a series of constellations designated by imaginary figures. Among them are a river, an arrow, and a lion which differs from that of our classical sphere. There are a hippopotamus and a lute-bearer; with a great asterism extending over nearly a quarter of the circumference of the sky, called the god Nacht, or the Conqueror, carrying a set of arms and ascending a stepping-stone. Another personage, Mena, is surrounded by servants. Egypt, therefore, in its uranography most distinctly followed the system of a pictured nomenclature.

The Aryans of India did the same thing in another independent manner. We find, among other things on their sphere, which was completed in the ninth century before the Christian era, a stork, two swine, a large tree with a dog in it, an Ethiopian with a giant's features, and a woman covered with a cloak. The Chinese adopted the system of small groups, and consequently considerably multiplied the number of denominations, so that their sphere bears more than three hundred names—names of personages and objects—forming in fact a figurative system. Here are the celestial pivot, precious stones, a bushel-measure, a woman embroidering, the sovereigns of the sky, and a number of the dignitaries of the Celestial Empire. The Arabs, previous to the time of Mohammed, also had a figured nomenclature, with a camel, a jackal, a sheep, an ostrich, and a dog; among inanimate objects, a tent, a crib, a pot, a plate, a cubit, and a well-bucket. The Great Bear was a coffin, followed by the three stars in the tail as three mourners. While the groups were independent and the figures unlike, the system of figuration still prevailed.

These peoples all had complete uranographies, covering every