PREDICTIONS AND DIVINATIONS 381
The reign of the snake Karkataka is equally unhappy. The remaining five are by no means equally mischievous.
It is seldom that persons are bitten by snakes while these are in power; and should a person be bitten, the bite does not prove fatal. The snake Maha-Padma particularly is the friend of men
; it not only prevents other snakes from harming them, but also comes to their aid by sending the physician Dhanmantari to cure such as may have been
accidentally bitten.
By the combination of the twelve signs of the Zodiac with the planets and with the star which is in the ascendant on each day of the moon, Hindu astrologers believe themselves capable of telling the secrets as well as the future
events of life.
The Sun remains thirty days in each of the signs of the
Zodiac; the Moon, two days and a quarter; Mars and Mercury, a month and a half;
Jupiter, one year; Venus, two years and a half; Saturn, one year and a half.
Each sign of the Zodiac has, besides, two stars and a quarter, which are assigned to it from among the twentyseven constellations or stars of the lunar month.
By comparing all these phenomena, and by joining, in regular order, certain words with the different signs of the
Zodiac, they are enabled to know the past, the present, and the future, and to recover things that have been lost or stolen. The coincidence of these words is, for this purpose, combined with the sign of the Zodiac, the planet, the star, and the time of the day or night at which the
astrologer is consulted.
By the same means it is possible to find out, not only
the place wherein a stolen article is secreted, but also the sex and the caste of the thief. They are also able to ascertain whether or not the stolen or lost article will be recovered, according as the sign, the planet, and the star which correspond to the time at which the consultation takes place are favourable or the reverse.
They discover in the same way whether a person who has been long absent is dead or alive; whether he is sick or in good health; whether he is at liberty or in prison; whether he will return or not.
But one of the most important combinations calculated