Alexander] ORION, THE MIGHTY HUNTER 381 



sword on belt, and club in hand, awaiting the rushing bull with 

 Aldebaran for his fiery eye. 



Of the stars that appear in Orion two are of the first magnitude 

 and have a place that is unrivaled in a single constellation. They 

 are Betelguese and Rigel, the one in the right shoulder of the Giant 

 and the other in his left foot. Betelguese is old and his face is red ; 

 this, astronomers tell us, is an indication of decline, the gradual 

 sinking into darkness which is the ultimate fate of all stars. 

 Betelguese is a very beautiful object in his glow of dusky red, 

 tinged with orange; this is a color that stars affect when they 

 have reached the stellar years of discretion, and no longer scintil- 

 late in a mad riot of youthful exuberance and vivacity. Of course 

 I would not have it understood that Betelguese does not twinkle 

 and gleam, as becomes a star of the first magnitude, but he does so 

 in an intermittent fashion, now equal in regal splendor to Altair 

 and Aldebaran, and again relapses into a soberness, when he is 

 no brighter than Formalhaut or Deneb. This is not the manner 

 of Rigel, the magnificent companion of Betelguese in the same 

 rank. Marking the left foot of Orion this stellar jewel flashes his 

 brilliance through the night with unwavering and irrepressible 

 vividness. Rigel is young and his glowing condition is but the 

 pomp and circumstances that all youth glories in. Rigel is the 

 brightest star in the figure of the great hunter, he is 16 degrees 

 south of grand old Betelguese. "The celestial equator runs 

 just about half way between the two stars so that Betelguese 

 lies in the northern and Rigel in the southern hemisphere." When 

 the constellation swings proudly into view, we first sight the som- 

 ber red face of Betelguese, some twenty minutes later Rigel comes 

 dancing sprightly into the field, shaking his flashing tresses with 

 splendid dash and radiance. 



Mythologically, Orion was the son of Neptune; the Greeks 

 in their picturesque way made him a warrior-giant, and the great- 

 est hunter in the world. Homer described him as "the tallest 

 and most beautiful man;" but he was proud and boastful and 

 made the vaunting claim that no beast on earth was so powerful 

 but that he could stay it ; whereupon Juno caused a great scorpion 

 to sting him in the foot, and thus the mighty boaster met his death. 

 Diana, later interceded with the Gods, who placed him in the sky 

 where we now see him, "opposite to the Scorpion," so that he may 

 take flight in the West forever when his enemy rears its loathsome 

 head above the eastern horizon. 



