Wallachians, and indeed, with or without the The 



number seven, throughout Europe. The long „ e ." 



i . . Month, 



continuity and vast range of this association 



with seven may be traced from the ancient 



Celtic ' The Seven Hounds ' to the still more 



ancient ' seven beneficent sky-spirits of the 



Vedas and the Zend-Avesta ' or to the again 



more ancient ' Seven Sisters of Industry ' of 



remote Chinese folklore. This feminine 



allusion in presumably the oldest mention 



of a popular designation for the Pleiades is the 



more singular from the kindred thought of the 



Roman writer Manilius — ' The narrow Cloudy 



Train of female stars'. . . i.e., no doubt, 



Pleione and her daughters. 



Nor, again, is it possible to record the many 



picturesque or homely Pleiad -designations, 



ancient and modern, in literature and folklore. 



What range, indeed, to cover . . . since we 



should have to go back to two thousand years 



B.C. to recover that fine name, General of the 



Celestial Armies ! It would be tempting to 



range through the poets of all lands. Think 



of such lovely words as those from the 



Mil allakat, as translated by Sir William 



Jones : ' It was the hour when the Pleiades 



appeared in the firmament like the folds of a 



silken sash variously decked with gems ' : or 



that line in Grafs translation of Sadi's Gu&stan 



273 T 



