Yes; about half-way between winter and summer.
Just so; that is, at the end of September.
Why should it be so there in England and here too?
We will try and find out. I think I have pointed out to you the Pleiades.
I know them well. They are in the Bull cluster.
There happens to be a band of twelve constellations forming a broad circle of the heavens.
Is that what is called the Signs of the Zodiac?
The same. Can you repeat them?
Yes, father. Aries the Ram, Taurus the Bull, Gemini the Twins, Cancer the Crab, Leo the Lion, Virgo the Virgin, Libra the Scales, Scorpio the Scorpion, Sagittarius the Archer, Capricornus the Goat, Aquarius the Water-bearer, Pisces the Fishes.
Over there to the eastward is one of these that rose as the sun was setting. The sun is seen opposite one or other of the twelve constellations in each month of the year. It is observed, for instance, to rise each morning for a month in the constellation of the Ram, and for the next month in the Bull.