On some of these the various constellations of the Northern hemisphere are engraved, especially the Great Bear--under innumerable disguises--and on others the twelve signs of the zodiac. These are very different, however, from the Grecian set--they are the Mouse, the Bull, the Tiger, the Hare, the Dragon, the Serpent, the Horse, the Ram, the Monkey, the Cock, the Dog, and the Pig. The Japanese series were the same. The Mongolians had a series of zodiacal coins struck in the reign of Jehanjir Shah (1014). He had pieces of gold stamped, representing the sun in the constellation of the Lion; and some years afterwards other coins were made, with one side having the impress of the particular sign in which the sun happened to be when the coin was struck. In this way a series is preserved having all the twelve signs. Tavernier tells the story that one of the wives of the Sultan, wishing to immortalise herself, asked Jehanjir to be allowed to reign for four-and-twenty hours, and took the opportunity to have a large quantity of new gold and silver zodiacal coins struck and distributed among the people. The twenty-eight divisions are less known now, simply from the fact that the Greeks did not adopt them; but they were much used by the early Asian peoples, who distinguished them, like the twelve, by a series of animals, and they are still used by the Arabs. So far for the nature of the zodiac, as used in various countries, and as adopted from more ancient sources by the Greeks and handed on to us. It is very remarkable that the arrangement of it, and its relation to the pole of the equator, carries with it some indication of the age in which it must have been invented, as we now proceed to show. We may remark, in the first place, that from very early times the centre of the zodiacal circle has been marked in the celestial sphere, though there is no remarkable star near the spot; and the centre of the equatorial circle, or pole, has been even less noticed, though much more obvious. We cannot perhaps conclude that the instability of the pole was known, but that the necessity for drawing the zodiac led to attention being paid to its centre. Both the Persians and the Chinese noted in addition four bright stars, which they said watched over the rest, _Taschter_ over the east, _Sateris_ over the west, _Venaud_ over the south, and _Hastorang_ over the north. Now we must understand these points to refer to the sun, the east being the spring equinox, the west the autumnal, and the north and south the summer and winter solstices. There are no stars of any brilliancy that we could now suppose referred to in these positions; but if we turn the zodiac through 60 deg. we shall find Aldebaran, the Antares, Regulus, and Fomalhaut, four stars of the first magnitude, pretty nearly in the right places. Does the zodiac then turn in this way? The answer is, It does.