THE COLOR OF THE STARS 135 



Btars, Stmve enumerates about 300 in which both stars are 

 white,* Procyon, Atair, the Pole Star, and more especially 

 |3 UrscB Min. have a more or less decided yellow light. Wt 

 have already enumerated among the larger red or reddish stars 

 Betelgeux, Arcturus, Aldebaran, Antares, and Pollux. K-iim 

 ker finds y Crucis of a fine red color, and my old friend, Cap 

 tain Berard, who is an admirable observer, wrote from Mada 

 gascar in 1847 that he had for some years seen a Crucis grow 

 ing red. The star rj Argus, which has been rendered cele- 

 brated by Sir John Herschel's observations, and to which 1 

 shall soon refei more circumstantially, is undergoing a change 

 in color as wei as in intensity of light. In the year 1843, 

 Mr. Mackay noticed at Calcutta that this star was similar in 

 color to Arcturus, and was therefore reddish yellow ;t but in 

 letters from Santiago de Chili, in Feb., 1850, Lieutenant Gil- 

 liss speaks of it as being of a darker color than Mars. Sir 

 John Herschel, at the conclusion of his Observations at the 

 Cai^e, gives a list of seventy-six ruhy-colorccl small stars, of 

 the seventh to the ninth magnitude, some of which appear 

 in the telescope like drops of blood. The majority of the vari- 

 able stars are also described as red and reddish,^ the excep- 



moreover unaccredited form of (jsipiuv), is likewise entirely erroneous. 

 While the motion of heat and light is implied by the expression aeioLoq, 

 the radical of the word Heiprjv represents the flowing tones of this phe 

 nomenon of nature. It appears to me probable that liELprjv is connect- 

 ed with elpsLv (Plato, Cratyl., 398, D, to yap elpeiv 7ieytLv kari), in which 

 the onginal sharp aspiration passed into a hissing sound." (From let 

 ters of Prof. Franz to me, Jannaiy, ]8")0.) 



The Greek ^e'lp, the sun, easily admits, according to Bo] p. " of be- 

 ing associated with the Sanscrit word svar, which does not indeed sig- 

 nify the sun itself, l)nt the heavens (as somelliiug shining). The ordi- 

 nary Sansciit denoniinatiou for the sun is surya, a contraction of svarya, 

 which is not used. The root svnr si^^nifies in general to shine. The 

 Zend designation for the sun is hvare, wiih the h instead of the s. The 

 Greek i?fp, ■&£po^, and d^epfiog comes from the Sanscnt word gharma 

 (Nom. gharmas), warmth, heat." 



The acute editor of the Rigveda, Max Miiller, obser\^es, that " the 

 special Indian astronomical name of the Do^.^Xm', Lubdkaka, which sig- 

 nifies a hunUr, when considered in reference to the neighboring con- 

 stellation Orion, seems to indicate an ancient Ajian community of ideas 

 regarding these groups of stars." He is, moreover, principally inclined 

 " to derive 'LeipLog from the Veda word sira (whence the adjective snir- 

 va) and the root sri, to go, to wander; so that the sun and the brig.it- 

 est of the stars, Sirius, were originally called w-anderinsT stars." (Con;- 

 pare also Voit, Etymologische Forscliungen, 1833, s. 130.) 



* Sti'uve, Stellarum compositarnm MensurcE Mtcromci'ritc^, 1837, J- 

 Ixxiv. et Ixxxiii. 



t Sir .Tolin Herschel, Ojservntions al fhc C rvc, p. 34. 



t Madler's ^l5i»-(>7?oi«;V'. s. •J3(J 



