Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/348

252 says Maurice, in his Indian Antiquities, "is perpetually seen upon all the hieroglyphics of Egypt, which is at once an argument of the great antiquity of this asterism, and of the probability of its having been originally fabricated by the astronomical sons of Misraim."

The beam was the instrument used by the Egyptians in measuring the inundations of the Nile, and some claim that because of this the beam was honoured by a place among the stars.

The Egyptian symbolic head-dress which appears in many representations of their ancient gods, as shown in the illustration, has, according to Plunket, an astronomical significance in which the constellation Libra figures. The two feathers represent the equal weights of the scale of Justice, and there also appear the horns of a goat and ram, and the disc enclosing a scarabseus, so that the head-dress is really an astronomic monogram containing four constellation figures in one, Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricornus.

According to Virgil the ancient husbandmen were wont to regard this sign as indicating the proper time for sowing their winter grain.

One of the early titles for Libra was or , the Latin "Jugum," meaning the "yoke." This may have had reference to the yoking of the oxen mentioned in the poet's verses. The constellations were in general used as perpetual almanacs and their seasons of appearance and disappearance were often warnings to the ancient tillers of the soil to sow their seed or reap their harvests.

Burritt tells us that the Balance was placed among the stars to perpetuate the memory of Mochis, the inventor of weights and measures. Those who refer the zodiacal