380 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [14:9— Dec, 1918 



group of stars with the exception possibly of those that form the 

 Big Dipper. 



"Those three great stars in the Giant's zone, 

 That glitter burnished by the frosty dark." 



It is a great pleasure to watch the movements of the stars. 

 The children love to do so and often the interest beginning in a 

 nursery rhyme has led to an ardent study of the sidereal heavens 

 in later life. It is told that Tegner, the Swedish poet, when a 

 child of only five once informed his father that he thought the stars 

 were holes punched in the floor of heaven by God's walking stick, 

 through which the celestial light shone. A remarkable and 

 beautiful thought for so young a mind to construct. The stories 

 that began far back in the history of the world, in which the 

 stars, and constellations figured, lend a peculiar interest to the 

 stellar world and should be taught and often repeated to the 

 children in schools at an early age. With the exception of the 

 Bear or Dipper, few of the constellations have been named for 

 the young folks, and most of this world's denizens pass through 

 life without the ability to name a single other, than this one star 

 group. Manifestly this is wrong. Things so remote and yet so 

 familiar to all of us as the stars should not go nameless. 



Orion is plainly to be seen on any clear night from October to 

 May. The first thing to catch our eye, if we but glance upward 

 in these months is the great dazzling belt of three stars that marks 

 the mid-regions of the giant. They have been called the Magi, 

 or three wise men, also the Three Marys and the Yardstick, 

 for they measure off just three degrees, or as we might say, a 

 celestial yard. The four great stars that dot off the chief figure 

 of Orion are remarkable for their splendor and brilliancy. These 

 four are Betelguese, Rigel (also called Algebar), Bellatrix and 

 Saiph. It is hardly to be wondered at, that the ancients saw 

 in this colossal parallelogram the figure of the hero of a then 

 popular myth; the belt and sword stars complete the likeness 

 with surprising exactness, and leave but little to the imagination. 

 With most of the constellations it is difficult to explain the names 

 that have been applied to them, or rather it is impossible to clearly 

 trace ths figure indicated by the name, such as, for instance, that 

 of the Archer, the Swan and Perseus : but in Orion this is not the 

 case, for here almost without imagination we can see the Giant, 



