nd they are mostly somewhat indefinite. Josephus, for
instance, makes a vague assertion about the twelve precious stones of
the High Priest's breast-plate, each of which bore the name of one of
the tribes, connecting them with the signs of the zodiac:--

"Now the names of all those sons of Jacob were engraven in
these stones, whom we esteem the heads of our tribes, each
stone having the honour of a name, in the order according to
which they were born. . . . And for the twelve stones whether
we understand by them the months, or whether we understand the
like number of the signs of that circle which the Greeks call
the Zodiac, we shall not be mistaken in their meaning."[187:1]

But whilst there is no sufficient evidence that each of the sons of
Jacob had a zodiacal figure for his coat-of-arms, nor even that the
tribes deriving their names from them were so furnished, there is
strong and harmonious tradition as to the character of the devices borne
on the standards carried by the four divisions of the host in the march
through the wilderness. The four divisions, or camps, each contained
three tribes, and were known by the name of the principal tribe in each.
The camp of Judah was on the east, and the division of Judah led on the
march. The camp of Reuben was on the south. The camp of Ephraim was on
the west. The camp of Dan was on the north, and the division of Dan
brought up the rear. And the traditional devices shown on the four
standards were these:--For Judah, a lion; for Reuben, a man and a river;
for Ephraim, a bull; for Dan, an eagle and a serpent.

In these four standards we cannot fail to see again the four cherubic
forms of lion, man, ox and eagle; but in two cases an addition was made
to the cherubic form, an addition recalling the constellation figure.
For just as the crest of Reuben was not a man only, but a man and a
river, so Aquarius is not a man only, but a man pouring out a stream of
water. And as the crest of Dan was not an eagle only, but an eagle and a
serpent, so the great group of constellations, clustering round the
autumnal equinox, included not only the Eagle, but also the Scorpion and
the Serpent (_see_ diagram, p. 189).

There appears to be an obvious connection between these devices and the
blessings pronounced by Jacob upon his sons, and by Moses upon the
tribes; indeed, it would seem probable that it was the former that
largely determined the choice of th