To suppose at 6000 B.C. so wide a diffusion, not only of the human race, but also of astronomical science and authority, seemed to involve an historical unlikelihood. Moreover, even if for the sake of suitably establishing the dignity of this regal pair one were tempted to suppose the great improbability of schools of astronomy existing, and with equal authority instituting constellations as star-marks for the year, in regions as far north as Lat. 45° N. and as far south as 18° N.--even so, I do not think the position of the constellations themselves in relation to the solstitial colure as shown in the diagram is by any means so convincingly symmetrical as to force us to accept the date 6000 B.C. for their origin. The head only of Cepheus appears on the meridian, his figure and the whole constellation of Cassiopeia lie considerably to the east of that line. Under these circumstances it is satisfactory to find at a later, and therefore at a more historically probable date, and still in an Ethiopian (tropical) latitude, a meridian line on and about which the constellations Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, and Cetus form a well-balanced group. This meridian, it is true, is not that of a solstice or an equinox; but it is one which marked a very important astronomical moment--namely, the commencement of the calendrical year--the year counted from the entry of the sun into the constellation Aries. (See Plate XXII., fig. 2.) Of the high calendrical importance attached through thousands of years to this point in the sun’s annual course by the Accadian and Babylonian nations and by the Hindus down to the present day, astronomic records testify. Egyptian mythology and Chinese traditions also, as I have claimed, refer to it: it need not, therefore, surprise us to find constellations imagined to mark the beginning of a year counted from that point, even at a date when this beginning did not coincide either with solstice or equinox. 3500 B.C. is the approximate date I would suggest in a latitude not far from 23° N. for the origin of the constellations Cepheus, Cassiopeia, and probably also for that of Cetus. The legend tells us that Cassiopeia by boasting of her own or of her daughter’s surpassing beauty incurred the enmity of the nereids. She is “... that starr’d Ethiop queen that strove To set her beauty’s praise above The sea-nymphs, and their power offended.”[122] [122] Milton, _Il Penseroso_. It seems to me that for this legend, as for many others, an astronomic basis may be assigned. 3500 B.C. the solstitial colure passed through the constellation Aquarius. The stars of that constellation might then not unfitly have been likened to sea divinities, and rival schools of astronomers and calendar keepers may have exalted the praise, on the one hand, of the stars that marked a calendrical, and, on the other hand, of those that marked a solstitial year.