Algonquins of the Atlantic and of the Mis- Winter 



sissippi, among the Eastern Narragansett Stars. 



nations and among the nations of the Illinois, 



the Bear was the accepted token. 



Bootes, the Great Bear, the Little Dipper 



or Ursa Minor, these great constellations, with 



their splendid beacons Arcturus, the Triones 



or the Seven Hounds of the North, and the 



Pole Star — 



" By them, on the deep, 

 The Achaians gathered where to sail their ships " — 



and in like fashion all the races of man since 

 Time was have ' gathered ' the confusing ways 

 of night on all lonely seas and in all lonely 

 lands. 



But best of all, to know this spell of the 

 nocturnal skies, one should be in the company 

 of fisher-folk or old seamen or shepherds, per- 

 chance unlettered but wise in traditional lore 

 and leal to the wisdom of their fathers. How 

 much more I value what I have heard from 

 some shepherd on the wide dark moors, or 

 from some islesman in a fishing-coble or drift- 

 ing wherry, on moonless nights filled with a 

 skyey 'phosphorescence' as radiant as that 

 a-dance and a-gleam in the long seethe of 

 the wake of a ship, than what I have found 

 concerning scientific star-names in books of 

 astronomy. Nothing that I have since learned 



295 



