In this head-dress very plainly are to be seen the horns of a ram, and those of a goat. Less convincingly, perhaps, the disc from which spring the goat’s horns suggests “the disc enclosing a scarabæus,”[111] under which form the sun as _Khophri_--“He who is”[112]--was sometimes represented by the Egyptians. [111] Maspero, p. 139. [112] _Ibid._ p. 138. The two feathers in outline clearly show themselves, but to connect these two feathers with the scales of Libra is only adventured as a possible means of giving an astronomic value to the so often repeated combination of the forms in this head-dress. As to Capricornus (the fourth of the constellations which marked the colures 6000 B.C.), (see Plate XVIII.), we do not meet with any representations, so far as I know, of a goat-fish on Egyptian monuments, but on Babylonian boundary stones and engraved gems this monster is often to be seen, exactly represented in form and attitude as on the Grecian sphere. The goat’s _horns_ are all we find portrayed in ancient Egyptian art, and when they are portrayed they appear together with the _ram’s horns_, and often springing out of a ram’s head. For this curt reference to the goat (Capricornus) a reason may be found by remembering that this constellation, _in opposition_, presided--traditionally--over the least honoured season of the Egyptian year--the arid season preceding the inundations. It should be borne in mind that all the Egyptian mythologic symbolism we have been considering must necessarily have only embodied traditions already even under the earliest dynasties extremely ancient; for it was, as may be seen in the Plates, about 6000 B.C. that the colures touched the extreme western degrees of the constellations Aries, Cancer, and Libra--and a point some degrees to the west of Capricornus, as it is now drawn. In each succeeding century the colures moved still more to the west, through the stars, and from 6000 down to 4000 B.C. they were no longer to be observed in the four already named constellations, but in Pisces, Gemini, Virgo, and Sagittarius. It is curious to note that there seems to be no pronounced allusion in Egyptian art or literature to these four constellations, though there are indications (see pp. 230-238) which may lead us to believe that the astronomical phenomena of the later date, 4000 B.C., were closely observed, and seem to have formed the basis of much of the mythology of Egypt.