1891-92. | THE GREAT CENTRE; AN ASTRONOMICAL STUDY. 191 
ton, Q.C., F.R.G.S., now residing abroad, has made a study of primitive 
traditions as to the Pleiades. He has discovered a yearly calendar 
regulated by these stars. He has become known in connection with the 
so-called “ Pleiades Year.” A work published on the Continent “ Die 
Pleiaden,” has been dedicated to him as the pioneer in this interesting 
field of research, and Mr. Piazzi Smith, late Astronomer Royal of Scot- 
land, borrowed largely from Mr. Haliburton in his book on the Great 
Pyramid. 
Mr. Haliburton has long been promising to embody the result of his 
investigations in book shape. Failing this, 1 am, through correspondence 
and reference to his published essays, able to give some of the facts and 
observations. And so, without too much anticipating the promised story, 
which we will hail with pleasure, I will cull from the rich supply he lays 
before us. 
In his pamphlet entitled “New Materials for the History of Man, 
1863,” Mr. Haliburton shows that the Festival of the Dead was, in ancient 
times, regulated by the Pleiades. The memory of the Deluge was by 
the Mexicans, the Egyptians and the Jews associated with the same time: 
of the year—the middle of October. Among the Aztecs, as well as the 
Egyptians, the Deluge was commemorated at the beginning of the year of 
the Pleiades, that is when that constellation culminated at midnight. 
The Deluge and time were considered synonymous by the ancients. In 
Europe the last day of October and first and second of November are 
designated as the festivals of A// Hallowe'en, All Souls and AM Saints. 
They are connected with the commemorations known amongst all nations. 
as the Festival of the Dead or the Feast of Ancestors, and this reminds 
us of the Voyage of Ulysses to the Gardens of Alkinoos, the abodes of 
the dead. . . . The Pleiades long retained their name Hesperides, 
Stars of the Evening, even when they had ceased to regulate the year, 
when their pleasant influences had been forgotten. They were also by 
the Latins called Vergiliz or harbingers of the spring; and by the 
Hebrews Chzmah, or the Cluster or group of Stars. The Pleiades gain 
twenty-eight days on the tropical year in every two thousand years.. 
Hence the Pleiades that now culminate at midnight on 17th November, 
did so in October two thousand years ago. The Bull constellation in- 
cluding the Alcyonic group, bore the name Tar, Ataur and Attyr in 
Egypt. Hence the Latin Zaurus. The year of the Tar and stars of 
Attaur, have left their impress on the very mountains of Great Britain. 
Many a hill is known as a Tor. Our ancestors raised the “Seven 
Altars” on these hills to the stars of the Tar, and to this day the pleasant 
influence of the Pleiades, commemorated by Job and celebrated by 
