cursed himself and his fate most horribly.  However, in a few minutes he became calmer and listened to the Mudalyar’s explanation, which was in substance as follows The only way for the sceptic to account for this phenomenon, is to suppose that the astrologer opened the covers dexterously and read their contents.  “So,” he said, “I wrote four lines of old poetry on the paper with nitrate of silver, which would be invisible until exposed to the light; and this would have disclosed the astrologer’s fraud, if he had tried to find out the contents of the enclosed paper, by opening the cover, however ingeniously.  For, if he opened it and looked at the paper, he would have seen that it was blank, resealed the cover, and declared that the paper enveloped therein bore no writing whatever; or if he had, by design or accident, exposed the paper to light, the writing would have become black; and he would have produced a copy of it as if it were the result of his own Vidya; but in either case and the writing remaining, his deception would have been clear, and it would have been patent to all that he did open the envelope.  But in the present case, the result proved conclusively that the cover was not opened at all.”

—­P.  Sreeneevas Row

The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac

The division of the Zodiac into different signs dates from immemorial antiquity.  It has acquired a world-wide celebrity and is to be found in the astrological systems of several nations.  The invention of the Zodiac and its signs has been assigned to different nations by different antiquarians.  It is stated by some that, at first, there were only ten signs, that one of these signs was subsequently split up into two separate signs, and that a new sign was added to the number to render the esoteric significance of the division more profound, and at the same time to conceal it more perfectly from the uninitiated public.  It is very probable that the real philosophical conception of the division owes its origin to some particular nation, and the names given to the various signs might have been translated into the languages of other nations.  The principal object of this article, however, is not to decide which nation had the honour of inventing the signs in question, but to indicate to some extent the real philosophical meaning involved therein, and the way to discover the rest of the meaning which yet remains undisclosed.  But from what is herein stated, an inference may fairly be drawn that, like so many other philosophical myths and allegories, the invention of the Zodiac and its signs owes its origin to ancient India.

What then is its real origin, what is the philosophical conception which the Zodiac and its signs are intended to represent?  Do the various signs merely indicate the shape or configuration of the different constellations included in the divisions, or, are they simply masks designed to veil some hidden meaning?  The former supposition is altogether untenable for two reasons, viz.:—­