XATLVK STAR N'AM1';S. 30? 



tliat month does not rise till lon^' after the sttn. Why, then, 

 this tradition of Canoptis ? Let tis list the stars just mentioned 

 as they rise at the eqtiator; we shall get this result: — 



Achernar gives two hours' warning of sun at tlie equator in mid May. In 



latitude 29° on April 1 . 

 Pleiades gives two hours' warning of sun at the equator in mid June. In 



latitude 29° in mid June. 

 Orion's belt gives two hours' warning of sun at the ecjuator on July 15- ii^ 



latitude 29° on July i. 

 Canopus gives two hours' warning of sun at the equator in August. In 



latitude 29° in mid June. 



This shows that Achernar was the original lord of the 

 Pleiades, walking about 30 degrees in front of them on a 

 shorter and more convenient path, as was dtte; the while they 

 toiled in the main road of the sky on the other side of the 

 equator (the conception is most characteristic). This is 

 Achernar's relation to the Pleiades at the equator, near which 

 the Banttt must have remained many centuries; but in this 

 degenerate latitude Moranang or Achernar gets up at 4.30 on 

 April I. wliile his ladies do not appear till 10 o'clock, dazzled 

 and quite put ottt by the fttll sunlight, and then have the im- 

 pudence to get home to bed about 7.30 p.m., long before their 

 lord and master. Now no native could stand such behaviottr 

 on the part of his woman folk, and I do not wonder at all that 

 they have fotind a new husband for them in Canopus. who 

 starts only half an hotir in front of them. It is true that they 

 race away from him disgracefully later on, but it is under cover 

 of daylight, so no one is the wiser. I maintain, however, that 

 Canopus is nothing better than a woman-thief in this storv, 

 for the trtte hvtsband has left his ticket on the month Moranang, 

 or April, when Canopus lies in bed till all hours. 



If there is not much poetry in the Banttt conception of the 

 constellations, I think you will allow that there is some humour. 



I have another Sesuto starname which I have not been able 

 to identify, viz., Tsika le maropo. I got a hint from some- 

 where that it might be Arcturus, but as the name means 

 " ridged and wrinkled," perhaps it may be the planet Saturn, 

 supposing the effect of the rings to have been observed. I 

 have only met one man who knew the star, and that at a time 

 when it was not visible. Ucanzibe is said to be Saturn in Katir, 

 but Father Bryant's Zulu Dictionary calls the obviously cognate 

 u-Cwazibe Aldebaran, and in Zululand u-Cwazibe was. I be- 

 lieve, pointed oitt to me as Fomalhaut. 



It will be noted that the great constellation is vSelemela, just 

 as the Plough is best known in England, which, however, is 

 not rising, like Selemela, but at its zenith, when it warns the 

 early-rising farmer that ploughing-time is at hand. The Sesuto 

 year is the earliest type of year, that depending on the seasons, 

 earlier than the solstitial or equinoctial which succeeded in 

 Europe, bringing their nice observations or calculations. To 

 take vSir Norman Lockyer's results, the Sesuto year corresponds 

 to the earlier alignment of Stonehenge of the 23rd century 

 B.C.. not the later (solstitial), inaugttrated about 1680 B.C. Just 

 as the old season or Mav year left its mark in the festivals iiow 



