This method of dividing the zodiac was very widely spread, and was common to almost all ancient nations. The Chinese have twenty-eight constellations, but the word _siou_ does not mean a group of stars, but simply a mansion or hotel. In the Coptic and ancient Egyptian the word for constellation has the same meaning. They also had twenty-eight, and the same number is found among the Arabians, Persians, and Indians. Among the Chaldeans, or Accadians, we find no sign of the number twenty-eight. The ecliptic or "Yoke of the Sky," with them, as we see in the newly-discovered tablets, was divided into twelve divisions as now, and the only connection that can be imagined between this and the twenty-eight is the opinion of M. Biot, who thinks that the Chinese had originally only twenty-four mansions, four more being added by Chenkung (B.C. 1100), and that they corresponded with the twenty-four stars, twelve to the north and twelve to the south, that marked the twelve signs of the zodiac among the Chaldeans. But under this supposition the twenty-eight has no reference to the moon, whereas we have every reason to believe that it has. The Siamese only reckoned twenty-seven, and occasionally inserted an extra one, called _Abigitten_, or intercalary moon. They made use, moreover, of the constellations to tell the hour of the night by their position in the heavens, and their method of doing this appears to have involved their having twenty-eight constellations. The names of the twenty-eight divisions among the Arabs were derived from parts of the larger constellations that made the twelve signs, the first being the horns, and the second the belly, of the Ram. The twenty-eight divisions among the Persians, of which we may notice that the second was formed by the Pleiades, and called _Pervis_, soon gave way to the twelve, the names of which, recorded in the works of Zoroaster, and therefore not less ancient than he, were not quite the same as those now used. They were the Lamb, the Bull, the Twins, the Crab, the Lion, the Ear of Corn, the Balance, the Scorpion, the Bow, the Sea-Goat, the Watering-pot, and the Fishes. Nor were the Chinese continually bound to the number twenty-eight. They, too, had a zodiac for the sun as well as the moon, as may be seen on some very curious pieces of money, of which those figured below are specimens. [Illustration: FIG. 10.]