National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1882-03-25

llere lhe S0rrefera have the same knowledge ns
the Egyptian priests. Again, Just as among the
Atcadiaus The proienilora of the existing tribes,
whether birds, or beasts or men, were set In the
sky, and made TO shine rs stars.
We have already given some Australian cN.
nmpleS IN the stories OF the Poiades aud Of Castor
aud Pollux: We may add tho ease Of the Eagle.
In Grcecc the Eagle was the bird Of Zeus. who car
ried OF Gunymcdc TO be the cup-bearer OF Oym
pus' Among the Australians this same constcllo'
ilqn Is called Totyarguil; lie .wns a man who,
when baihing, was killed by fabulous animal,
kind of kclplc, as Orion, in Greece was killed
10y the Scorpion. Like Orion, he was placed
lnton named Eagle, but nc IS our Sirius, or Dog
Star
The Bushmcn, almost the lowest tribe of South
Africa, have the same star.lo and much tho
same myths 0s the Greeks. Australians, Egypti0ns,
and E.qumnux According 10 DR.. Bleek, " stars,
and even the sun and moon, were once rnortals
on earth, or oven animals or inorganic substances
which happened 70 get translated 70 the skies.
The sun was once man, whose arm pit rndiated
children threw him into tho sky, and there he
shines" The pointers Of the Southern Cross were
tive, men. who were lions,' just as Callisto In
Arcadia was woman who was bear.
In Australian fable the moon was man, the
sun woman Of Indifferent character who up
pears Mt dawn In coat Of red Kangaroo skins the
present OF an ndmirer In an old Mexican text
tho moon was man, across whose face god
threw n rabbit thus making the marks In the
moon Among tho Esquimaux the moon Is n girl
because he dlslgured her face. Among the New
Zcalaudes and North American Indians the sun
/
thrashcd with cudgcls. His blood Is used In somo
New Zealand incantations. The Red Indians, as
schooleratt says, hold many OF tho planets
to be transformed pdventurCrs. THE Iowns
believe stars to be sort Of living
creatures" One of them came down and
talked to q hunter and showed him where to find
game. The GnllinomerOs Of Central California,
according to Mr.. Bancroft, believe that the sun
and moon were made and lighted by the Hawk
Sml G m GGy0 10y wh0 d new into saen S
such accidents In future But the very oldest ex-
ample of the survival of the notion that the stars
are men aud women is found In the Pax" OF
Arlstophanes TryDgus in that comedy, has Just
made an expedition to heaven. a slave meets
him aud asks him. Is not the story true, then.
that we become stars when we der The answer
is, "Ccriainly," I'd DBraBs points out the star
into which los Of ChiOs has just been meta
morphosed Arlstophancs is making fun of some
popular Greek superstition. But that very super
stition meets us IN New Zealand. Heroes" says
Mr. Taylor, were thought to become stars OF
greater or less brightness according to the number
of their victims slain In fight"
II would be easy 10 multiply examples of this
stage ofthough and to show that star; stories ex-
sted OH the banks of the Amazon as well as on the
borders Of the Lake of Anahuac. But we have
probably brought forward enough for our purpose,
and have expressly chosen instances from the
will perhaps be admitted, suggest, II they do not
prove, that the Greeks had received from tradition
precisely the same sort of legends about the
heavenly bodies as are current among EsquimauX
and Bushmen, New zealanders, and loowas.
IL seems evident enough tnat the older Greek
names of stars derived from time when the
ancestors of the Greeks were IN the mental and
imaginative condition of lowas, Kanckas, Bush.
men, Murri, and New Zealanders. All these and
all other savage peoples believed In kind o
| equality and intercommunion among all things
animate and inaulmate. Stones are supposed II
| the Pacific Islands to be male and female, and L
propagate their species. Animals are believed (
| have human or superhuman intelligence, anC
| speech, If they choose to exercise the gin star
| are Just OH the same footing, and thei
| movements are explained by the same ready sys
! TEN of universal anhropomorphism, Stars, fishes
| gods heroes, men. trees. clouds, and animals al
| play their equal part In the confused dramas o
| savage thought and savage mythology. Even IL
| practical life the change Ofa sorcerer into an ami
NAL is accepted as u familiar phenomenon, ant
| the power of soaring among the stars is one OF
| which the Australian biraark, or the EsquimauA
shamHn most plumes himself II Is not wonder.
| full that things which are held possible in dali,
practice should be frequent features OF mythology
Hence the ready invention and belief of star
legends, which in their turn fix the names of tn
heavenly bodies. Nothing more, except the extreme
| tenacity of tradition and tho Inconvenience U
changing n widely accepted name, is needed t
account for the human and animal names of tn
stars. The Greeks received from the datcless pas
| of savage intellect tho myths, and the names o
tho consultations, and we have taken them, with
out inquiry, from the Greeks. Thus 1t happen
that our celestial globes are Just as queer menag
cries as any globes could be that were illustrates
by Australians or American Indians, by Bushme
| or Peruvian aborigines or EsquimauX. 1t wa
savages, we may be tolerably certain. who frs
handed to science the names of the constellation.
and provided Greece with the raw material of ho
astronomical myths-as Bacon prettily says, tina
we listen to the harsh ideas of earlier peoples n
they come 10 us blown soitly through tn
flutes of the Greclans." The &arst moment 4
astronomical science arrives when ,tth
savage, looking at q star, says, lik
the child in the nursery poem, HOY
| wonder what you !" The next moment come
when the savage has made his first rough practi
cal observations OF the movements OF the hoavenl
body. His next step is TO explain these to him
self. Now, science cannot advance any but
flnciful explanation beyond the sphere of expe
rienCe. The experience of the savage Is limited
the narrow world of his tribe, and OF the beast
birds and fishes of his district. His philosophy
therefore, accounts for all phenomena on the sup
position that the laws of the animate nature h
observes are working everywhere. But his obseI
yations, misguided by his crude magical supersti
tions have led him 10 believe in state of equullt
aud kinship between men and animals, and eve
inorganic things. He often wOrshipS the yer
beasts he slays; he addresses them
If they understood him; he believes him
self TO be descended from the animals and of the
kindred. These confused ideas he applies to tn
stars and recognize i'll them men like himself,
beasts like those with which he cOnceives himse
to be in such close human relations. There
scarcely bird or beast but the Red Indian or Ii
Australian will explain its peculiarities by myt
liFc Il page fromlOvid's MetamorphOses." ltwt
once man or u woman, and has been changed
| bird or beast by god or magician, Men, ngai
nave originally been beasts, in his philosophy, al
| are descended from wolves, frogs or serpents,
| monkeys The heavenly bodies are traced to PR
cisSly the same sort Of origin; aud hence, we col
CluClA, come their strange animal names, and u
strarage myths about them which appear in a
ancient pOelry.-1he CorRhM Magazine.