The extra-zodiacal stars are distributed in constellations, which are distinguished in general by the names of the emperor and his ministers or courtiers ; but that which in Europe is designated Ursa Major is represented by a vessel for measuring corn ; the four stars of the quadrilateral figure forming the body and the others the handle. Biot relates, from information communicated by M. Remusat, that in the Chinese sphere the constellation which corresponds to Orion is designated by a name signifying a conqueror.
That a few coincidences should exist among the names given by different people to the groups of stars in the heavens, may be conceived without supposing that any of the people borrowed from one another : it may, therefore, be considered as purely accidental that the Iroquois called the stars of Ursa Major by a name which in their language sig nifies a bear (Lafitteau, ' 3Imurs de Sauvages,' tom. ii.), and that the people living about the Amazonas designated the stars in the head of Taurus by a word signifying a bull (Condamine, 3I6moires de l'Acad6mie des Sciences,' 1745). But it is remarkable, and may be deduced as a proof, among many others, of the descent of the ancient Mexicans from the people of Asia, that the former should have executed sculptured representations of their calendar, and placed them as orna mental objects in their religious edifices. It has been ascertained that the Toltecana and Aztecs made the year consist of eighteen months of twenty days each, to which they added five complementary (lays, intro ducing a period of thirteen days at the end of fifty-two years in order to complete the cycle [AZTECS, in GEM/. Div.); and this division of the
year is represented in a chronological table executed by the latter people. (Caned, Giro del Mundo.') Among the ruins of Palenka have been found sculptured figures of serpents, which have been thought to indicate the existence of the Ophite worship in that part of the country, the seat of the Toltecans ; and at the same place has been found a piece of sculpture, supposed to be a planisphere, on which are eighteen compartments representing months, which are disposed three together in the interior of a ring ornamented with hieroglyphical figures. In 1790 there was discovered, in tho city of Mexico, among the foundations of the temple of 3Iexitili,. a block of porphyry, on which are described symbolical figures, apparently constituting a plani sphere or a chronological table, in which the several days of the year are distinguished by particular names and objects, and a few of them are stated to correspond nearly to the signs on the Chinese planispheres. Humboldt remarks (` Researches,' &c.) that the name of the first day is also the name of water, and that the symbol of the day consists of undulating lines resembling those which indicate Aquarius in the Greek and Egyptian zodiacs.