National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1882-03-25
BEAUTIFUL STARS.
HOW THEY GOT THEIR QUEER NAMES.

I WTTWW
elements Of the heavenly bodies by the aid of
spectrum analysis. "But what beats me abonttho
! stars" he observed plaintiyely, rs how we come
| to know their names" This question, or rather
the somewhat similar question, How did the con-
Stellations come by thoirvcry peculiar namesY has
puzzled Professor Ptichard and other astronomers
more serious than Artemus Ward Why Is group
Of stars called the Bear, or the Swan or the Twins
or named aiter the Plciades, the fair daughters of
the Giant Atlas7 These are difficulties that meet
even children when they examine celestial
globe" There they Gnd the figure OF n bear,
traced out with lines in the intervals between
the stars Of the consultations, while very
imposing giant is so drawn that Orion's belt just
fits his waist. But when he comes to looks at the
heavens the infant speculator sees no sort oflike
ness to bear In the stars nor anything at all re-.
Scmbing giant in the ncighborhood of Orion.
The most eccentric modern fancy, which can do.
tcct what shapes 1t will IN clouds is unable TO iind
any likeness to human or animal forms In the
| stars and yet we call great many OF the stars by
| the names of mon, and beasts, aud gods, some
resemblance 10 terrestrial things, II Is true every
one can behold in tho heavens Corona. for OK
ample is like q crown, or, as the Australian black
fellows know is is like boomerang and we can
| understand why they give II the name Of that
curious curved missile Tho Milky Way, again,
/ does resemble path In the sky; our English an
ccstors called II Waiting Street.-The path of the
| Wutlings, mythical giants-and Bushmen in Africa
aud redmen In North America name 1t the "ashen
| path" The ashes Of the path, of COURSE are sup
posed to be hot and glowing not dead aud black,
| like the ash paths of modern running grounds.
| Other and more recent names for certain constel-
lations are also ineligible. In Homers time the
| Greeks had two names for the Great Bear, they
called It the Bear or the Vain aud q certain fan.
| cful likeness to II vain may be mado out, though
no resemblance TO u bear is manifest. In tho
| rpftn tn1 utaat IN np
| styled the Dppcr and every one may observe the
likeness to u dippcr or toddy- -ladle But these TO-.
scmhlauccs take us only little waytoward learn
| ing how the consultations obtained their human
aud animal nppellattonS.
AS the star stories told by the Greeks the ancient
| Egyptians, and other civilized people OF the Old
World exactly correspond III character and some
times even in incident, with the star stories OF
modern savagcs, wo have tho choice OF two hy-
potheSes to explain this curious coincidence, Per-
hans the star stories about nymphs changed into
bears and bears changed into stars were invented
by the civilized races of old, and gradually found
their way among people like the Esqumaux and
the Australians and the Bushmei. or IL may be
mauN, and Bushmen were once civilized like the
Greeks and Egyptians, and invented star stories,
sill remembered by their degenerate descendants.
These are the two forms of the explanation which
will be advanced By persons who believe that the
stories were originally the fruit OF the civilized
imagination. The other theory wolld be that the
Ridiculous tales about the stars were orig
inally the work of the savage imagination, and
that the Greeks and Egyptians when they became
|
ancestors had invented when they were saw
ages. In favor Of this theory 1t may be said
briefly, that there Is no proof that the fathers
, | of Australians, Esqutmaux, and Bushmen had
ever been civilized while there is great deal Of
evidence suggest that the fathers of the Greeks
D had once been sayages And, II we incline tC
the theory that the star myths are the creation o
savage fancy, wo at once learn why they are IL
all parts of the world so much alike. Just as The
r flint and bone weapons OF rude races resemble
each other much more than they resemble the
metal weapons aud the artillery of advanced
| peoples 50 the mental products, the fairy tales
! aud myths of rude races have everywhere stront
family resemblance. They arc produced by mer
| in similar mental conditions of ignorance, curl
OSity, and credulous fancy, ana thoy are intended
| TO supply the same needs, plrily of amusing mar
a ratlve, partly of crude explanation Of iamlia
a | phenomena.
e that the star.stores of savage and of civilized
;, rucos closely resemble each other Let us begii
u with that well. known group, the Ploades. Th
i peculiarly of the Pleiadcs Is that the group con
sists of seven stars, of which one is so dim that
seems entirely to disappear, and many persons car
only detect its presence through telescope Th
i Greeks had myth to account for the vanishing
r. of the lost Pleiad The tale is given in the Kat
asterismoi (storics of metamorphoses into stars)
attributed to EratOsthenes This work was probably
written after our era, but the author derived hi
Information from older treatises, now lost Accord
ing to the Greek myth, then the seven stars Of tn
Pleiad were seven maldens daughters of tho Clan
-, Atlas Six of them had gods for lovers; Posdo
admired two of them, Zeus three, and Ares one
but the seventh had only an earthly wooer, an
l. when all of them were changed into star
the maiden with the mortal lover hid he
l. light for shame. Now let us compare tn
Australian story According to Mr.. Dawso
r. Australian Ahorigines'g, a writer who know
- enly bodies greatly exceeds that OF most whit
people" and "is taught by men selected for thel
= intelligence and information. The knowledge
= important to the aborlgines on their night jour
neysI SO we may be sure that the natives ar
N careful observers of the heavens, and are likel
)t to be conservative Of these astronomical myth
The /" Lost Peiad has not escaped them, an
n this Is how they account for her Disappearance,
d The Pirt KOpan Moot tribe have tradition thr
the Pleades were q queen and her six attendant
. Long ago the Grow (Our Cauopus) fell in love wit
d the queen, who refused to be his wife. The Gro,
found that the queen and her six maidens, lik
+, other Australian gins, were in the habit of hunt
!" bafk bik Of Of trees, The Grow at once change
l., himself into u grub Gust as Jupiter an
IT indra used to change into swans, horses ants, o
: what noU and hid In the bark Oftle tree, The s
maidcns soughtto pick him out with their woode
It hooks, but he broke the points Of all the hooks
;. Then came the queen, with her pretty bone hook
Q he let hinselibo drawn ou', took the shape of
@ have been only six stars, the six maidens IN tn
Il Peiad. This story Is well known, by the strctes
WSSs Bsfc and s in South h australia H O'''N' 0' III
Let us next examine the stars Castor and Pol
' lux. Both in Greece and in Australia these ar
: | said once TO have been two young men. In tn
kntnstersmOi, already spoken OF, we read: 9TH
u Twins, or Dloseouro They were nurlured II
love, wherefore Zeus, desiring to make their mem
Org immortal, placed them both among the stars
In Australia 1urrcc Castor and Waujl (poluX
y are two young men who pursue Purra and xii
7 him at the commencement of tho great heat
I, COonar ToOrung lthe mirage) IL the smoke OF thu
fire by which they roast him. In Greece IL wa
not Castor and PollnN, but Orion who was The
/ great hunter set among the stas, Among In,
Q Bushmcn Of South Africa Castor and POlluX are
a not young men, tut young women, the wives o
4 the Gland, the great native antelope. In Greek
star stories the Great Bear keeps watch. Homer
says, on the hunter Orion for fear Of sudden at.
u tack But how did the Bear get its nape An
Greece Ace9rang TO l9 Btst tsftnw WAS once r indS
daughter of Lycaon, King of Arcadia She was a
! 10 the love of Zeus and became the anCestTess
of all the Arcadans THAT is bear tolk). In her
bestal form she was just about to be slain by her
own son, when Zeus rescued her by raising her 10
the stars. Here we must notice, first that the Area
dians like Australians, red Indians, Bushmen,
and many otherwild races, and liketh Bedouins'
NAL. That the early Egyptians did the same is
not improbable, for names of animals are found
among the ancestors inthe very oldest genealogical
papyrIs, as in the genenogies of the old English
kings. Next the Arcadans transferred the ances.
tral bear to the heavens, and In doing this they
rcsembed the Peruyians, OF whom Acosta says
be II ram, snd worshipped two Others, and say that
one of them is sheep ana The other lamb,
Others worshipped the star called the
Tiger, They were of opinion that there was not
any beast or bird upon the earth whose shape or
image did not shine in the heavens"
| But to return to our bears. The Australians have
properly speaking, no bears, though the animal
called tho native bear is looked UP to by the
RbOrigines with supelslitious regard. But among
the North American Indians as the old mission
aries l.Otitnu and ChHrleyON observed, the four
stars in front of our constellation are bear; those
in the tail are hunters who pursue him the small
star apart is the pot In which they mean 10 cook
him.
II may be held that the red men derived their
bear from the European settlers. But, AS we have
seen, Un exact knowledge OF the STAN has always
been useful, If not essential, to sayages, aud we
venture TO doubt wheiherthey would confuse their