of antelopes, gems, pearls, &c. The planets in their system, we have seen, are all personified, and invested with appropriate dresses and symbols, and are represented riding on animals, characteristic of their slow or rapid revolution in the heavens. Thus, it has been observed, the Sun is mounted on a lion, to mark the ardour and fierceness of his beam; the Moon on an antelope, to denote the rapidity of her progress; Mercury on a hawk, a bird whose soaring wing explores the highest region of æther, while its undazzled eye gazes stedfastly on the orb of day, shining in meridian splendour; Mars armed with a sabre, is borne on a warhorse through the heavens; Venus, the radiant harbinger as well of the opening as of the closing day, is mounted on a camel, an animal patient and indefatigable, that pursues his unwearied journey over trackless deserts and burning sands, early and late, before the sun rises, and after it has declined; Jupiter rides on a boar, a slow and sluggish animal, the emblem of his tedious revolution; and Saturn measures round the circumference of his vast orbit exalted on the back of a heavy unwieldy elephant. But of Saturn, or SANI, as in the old Sanscreet books he is denominated, there occurs in that system a very curious circumstance not

mentioned before, and which deserves the marked attention of the astronomical student.

Sani has already been described, from Sanscreet authorities, as a malignant planet, and he is metaphorically represented as the slow-moving child of Surya, the Sun. The Indians entertain dreadful apprehensions concerning him, and offer to him conciliatory prayers. He is depicted of a blue colour; he has four arms; he is mounted upon a raven; and is surrounded by two serpents, whose intertwining bodies form a circle round him.*

I have already intimated in a former volume, that the circle formed around SANI, by the intertwining serpents, was probably intended to denote his RING. I have since had the figure engraved for the reader's inspection and decision. It is impossible to ascertain the exact age of the pictured image in the pagoda from which the portrait was taken; but probably both are of a very remote age; for, the Indian pagodas are not fabrications of yesterday, nor in their conceptions and designs are they given to frequent vicissitude. Now, if Sani were thus designated in very ancient periods, the fact proves that they must, by what means can scarcely be conjectured, have discovered the phenomenon *Sonnerat's Voyages, vol. i. p. 63.

SANI, OR THE PLANET SATURN,

of his RING; for, what besides could that serpentile oval, enclosing the body of Sani, be intended to represent? That phenomenon, however, was not known in Europe till about the year 1628, when Galileo, with the first perfect telescope, discovered what he conceived to be two stars at the extreme parts of the planet ; but which, in reality, proved to be the ANSA of that ring, the actual existence of which was afterwards demonstrated by Huygens and succeeding astronomers. The circumstance is not the least wonderful of those that occur in the discussion of Indian antiquities and literature. I have stated the fact, and engraved the image; I leave to abler judges the task of decision.

There is no occasion, however, to trouble the reader with farther conjectures on the high proficiency in astronomy of the ancient Brahmins, since indubitable proofs of their rapid advance in that science are to be found in the most ancient pagodas of Hindostan, all placed with such astronomical precision, as with their four sides constantly to face the four cardinal points. These were examined and found to be exactly thus situated by M. Gentil; and in this circumstance they resemble the pyramids of Egypt, probably the work of the same artificers; for, a variety of facts tends to strengthen the