The _Torrid_, or _Burning Zone_, is all the space comprehended between the two tropics; the ancients imagined this tract of the Earth to be uninhabitable, because of the excessive heat, it being so near the Sun. All the inhabitants of the torrid zone have the Sun in their zenith, or exactly over their heads twice in every year; excepting those who live exactly under the two tropics, where the Sun comes to their zenith only once in a year.
The two _Temperate Zones_ lie on either side of the globe, between the tropics and the polar circles.
The two _Frigid Zones_ are those spaces upon the globe that are included between the two polar circles.
The inhabitants of the Earth are also distinguished by the diversity of their _Shadows_. Those who live in the torrid zone, are called _Amphiscians_, because their noon-shadow is cast different ways, according as the Sun is to the northward or southward of their zenith; but when the Sun is in their zenith, they are called _Ascians_.
The inhabitants of the temperate zones, are called _Heteroscians_, because their noon-shadow is always cast the same way: But those who live under the tropics are called _Ascians Heteroscians_; those who live in the frigid zones are called _Periscians_, because sometimes their shadow is cast round about them.
These hard names are only _Greek_ words, importing how the Sun casts the shadow of the several inhabitants of the Earth; which would be a too trifling distinction to be made here, was it not for the sake of complying with custom.
The inhabitants of the Earth are also distinguished into three sorts, in respect to their relative situation to one another, and these are called the _Periœci_, _Antœci_, and _Antipodes_.
5. The _Periœci_ are those who live under opposite points of the same parallel of latitude. They have their seasons of the year at the same time, and their days and nights always of the same length with one another, but the one’s _Noon_ is the other’s _Midnight_; and when the Sun is in the equinoctial, he rises with the one, when he sets with the other. Those who live under the Poles have no _Periœci_.
6. The _Antœci_ live under the same meridian, and in the same latitude, but on different sides of the equator; their Seasons of the year are contrary, and the days of the one are equal to the nights of the other, but the hour of the day and night is the same with both; and when the Sun is in the equinoctial, he rises and sets to both exactly at the same time. Those who live under the equator have no _Antœci_.