Scottish poet, we add the star Aldebaran, Winter 

 and the constellation of Taurus or the Bull, stars - 

 we have more than enough Winter Lights to 

 consider in one chapter. 



Having already, however, dealt with 'the 

 watery constellations' we can be the more 

 content now to ignore Alcyone, Maia, Taygeta, 

 Electra, and the other Pleiadic stars of Taurus. 

 This great constellation is one of the earliest in 

 extant astronomical records : the earliest, it is 

 believed. The stellar image of a Bull has 

 occurred to many nations since the designation 

 first arose among the ancient Cretans or 

 Akkadians — if, indeed, in its origin it was not 

 immeasurably more remote. East and West, 

 in the deserts of the South and among the grey 

 isles of the North, ■ the Bull ' was recognised. 

 To-day the Scottish peasant still calls it ' the 

 Steer,' as his German kinsman does in der 

 Stier, his French kinsman in le Taureau, his 

 Spanish or Italian kinsman in Toro. When 

 certain of the Greeks and Latins used Kerdon 

 and Cornus instead of Tauros and Taurus, 

 they said merely the same thing — the Horned 

 One. Virgil, as many will remember, utilises 

 the image in the first ' Georgic ' : 



" When with his golden horns bright Taurus opes 

 The year . . ." 



303 



