The Way as are the vernal floods and the autumnal 

 ^ llky rains with the Pleiades. Probably the bestowal 

 y * of the name is due to the fact that when the 

 Galaxy is clear and bright and scintillant the 

 weather is serene and dry. A more poetic 

 designation is that of the Finns, who delight 

 in the term Linnunrata, the Birds' Way, 

 either from an old Finnish and Esthonian 

 legend that once by a miracle all the songs of 

 all the birds of the world were turned into a 

 cloud of snow-white tiny wings, or from the 

 more likely belief that it is the road of winged 

 spirits on their passage from earth to heaven. 

 This is, of course, a very ancient conception. 

 The ancient Hindus revealed it in the phrase 

 * the Path of Ahriman ' : the ancient Norse as 

 ' the Path of the Ghosts ' going to Valhalla : 

 the ancient Gaels as the Hero-Way, leading 

 from Earth to Flatheanas, the Abode of Eternal 

 Youth. It is strange and suggestive that not 

 only the North American aborigines called it 

 'the Trail to Ponemah' (the Hereafter), but 

 that people so rude as the Eskimo and the 

 Bushmen of South Africa call it ' the Ashen 

 Path,' the road of fire-ember signals, for the 

 ghosts of the dead. Even the Patagonians 

 speak of the Milky Way as the white pampas 

 where their dead are immortal huntsmen 

 rejoicing in the pursuit of countless ostriches. 



230 



