A few hundred years later, we learn from the works of Strassmeyer and Epping, a complete chain of twenty-eight stars along the ecliptic had been established, and most careful observations made of the paths of the moon and planets, and of all attendant phenomena. The ecliptic stars then used in Babylonia were as follows:--[181] 1. η Piscium. 2. β Arietis. 3. α Arietis. 4. η Tauri. 5. α Tauri. 6. β Tauri. 7. ζ Tauri. 8. η Geminorum. 9. μ Geminorum. 10. γ Geminorum. 11. α Geminorum. 12. β Geminorum. 13. δ Cancri. 14. η Leonis. 15. α Leonis. 16. ρ Leonis. 17. β Leonis. 18. β Virginis. 19. γ Virginis. 20. α Virginis. 21. α Libræ. 22. β Libræ 23. δ Scorpionis. 24. α Scorpionis. 25. δ Ophiuchi. 26. α Capricorni. 27. γ Capricorni. 28. η Capricorni. In Egypt, dating from the twentieth dynasty (1100 B.C.), is a series of star tables which have puzzled Egyptologists from Champollion and Biot downwards. These observations are recorded in several manuscripts found in tombs; they seem to have been given as a sort of charm to the people who were buried, in order to enable them to get through the difficulties of the way in the nether world. The hieroglyphs state that a particular star of a particular Egyptian constellation is seen at a particular hour of the night. We have twelve lines representing the twelve hours of the night, and it is stated that we have in these vertical lines the equivalent of the lines in our transit instruments, and that the reference "in the middle," "over the right eye," "over the right shoulder," or "over the left ear," as the case may be, is simply a reference to the position of the star. Were this confirmed, one of the remarkable things about the inquiry would be that the Egyptians did not hesitate in those days to make a constellation cover very nearly 90° of right ascension, showing that they wished to have as few constellations, including as many stars, as possible. But the best authorities all agree that these are tables of stars rising at different hours of the night, and a small constellation near the pole might have taken many hours to rise. The observations were made on the 1st and 16th of every month. The chief stars seem to be twenty-four in number, and it looked at first as if we had really here a list of priceless value of twenty-four either ecliptic or equatorial stars, similar to the decans to which reference has already been made. Unfortunately, however, the list has resisted all efforts to completely understand it. Whether it is a list of risings or meridian passages even is still in dispute. Quite recently, indeed, one of the investigators, Herr Gustav Bilfinger,[182] has not hesitated to consider it not a list of observations at all, but a compilation for a special purpose.