NATIVE STAR NAVIES. 



By Rev. Father Norton, S.S.M. 



The first thing' that strikes one in studying Sesnto star names 

 is that only those stars are named which have a practical use 

 in agriculture. The little Bushmen among whom the Bantu 

 came had picturesque folklore gathered round the stars, for 

 they had no agricultural needs to fetter their imagination. For 

 example, Magellan's clouds were birds or steinbok; the three 

 largest stars of the Southern Cross were lionesses followed 

 by two lions (the Pointers); the brightest star in (Jrion is a she- 

 haartebeest accompanied by Aldebaran, her mate. ( )rion"s belt 

 is three female tortoises with their males on a stick, represented 

 by Orion's sword. Procyon is a bull eland attended by his 

 two cows (Castor and Pollux): Arcturus is the discoverer of 

 Bushman rice (ant pupae, the Bushman delicacy), which is per- 

 sonified by Canopus digging with his digging stick, Achernar. 

 A most elaborate myth centres round Jupiter. 



I mention these stars (on Dr. Bleek's authority) to show how 

 much poetry of the southern skies was missed by the Bantu, 

 and also to prepare for the Basuto star-grouping. 



The Bushmen were not, of course, alone when they said that 

 the stars were girls killed by lightning; the Persians said that 

 they were ghosts of men, the Australians good men. the 

 Eskimo souls of ancestors, the ( iermans of children, the Peru- 

 vians that every beast had its celestial counterpart, reminding" 

 us of Plato's Ideas. Our European star names are, of course, 

 largely built on Greek myth. Again, if the Bushmen called the 

 Milky Way the path of white ashes, the Australian said it was 

 the firesmoke of the ancient race, while the English called it 

 Watling Street, the path of the giants, the Redmen the path 

 of souls, the ]Masai the road across the sky, the Dutch the 

 Hemelstraai. The Basuto, Zulu, etc., can only say the girdle 

 of the sky, and have no name, so far as I can find, for the 

 glorious Sirius, the brightest jewel of the southern heavens. 

 .Where even the fierce Masai have the humour to say that the 

 three old widows in Orion's belt are following up in single 

 file the three old men in his sword, the Basuto merely name 

 the belt the Pigs (contrast the Dutch name Three Kings); 

 where the Hottentot Khoikhoi called tlie Pleiades Orion's 

 wives who shut him out because he missed his game, the Bantu 

 call them the ploughing-constellation, Isilimcla, because its 

 rising in the early morning of midwinter tells the blackman that 

 he must soon turn out into the cold and plough for mealies. 

 As in Hottentot, however, they are wives, the harem of 

 Achernar. There is a certain doubt about the husband, as 

 Canoi)Us is, I think, sometimes regarded as the happy gentle- 

 man, but. seeing that Moranang is a homonym of the male 

 Selemela and of April month, it is clear that its rising is looked 

 for then (some two hours loefore sunrise), while Canopus in 



