May 1, 18SS.] 



♦ KNOW^LEDGE ♦ 



14; 



have been borrowed cannot have been much less than a 

 thousand lines in length. 



It was the recognition of the peculiar correspondence be- 

 tween the equator and the long body of the Sea-serpent 

 (ranging past the zodiacal constellations, the Crab, the Lion, 

 the Virgin, and the Scales) which led me to inquire into the 

 position of some of the most remarkable constellations of 

 the earliest known systems of astronomy. Naturally I 

 turned first to the great constellation Argo, which is, or 

 rather was, altogether the most striking of them all. 



Let me, however, premise that few even among astronomers 

 seem to understand how in ancient times the constellations 

 were dealt with. It requires a long and careful study of 

 old descriptions and old globes and pictures, to recognise 

 what the constellations re;illy must have been ; and modern 

 astronomers, those at least who are chiefly engaged in sur- 

 veying the heavens, take little interest in inquiiies of the 

 sort, ilost of them imagine that the constellations have 

 always had about the limits assigned to them in modern 

 charts. And since it is obvious that, as thus defined, the 

 star groupings show for the most part very little resemblance 

 to the various objects after which they are called, it is 

 quietlj' taken for granted that men in old times called the 

 star groups by names assigned for the most part in quite 

 arbitrary fashion. 



Mr. Lang, in his interesting volume " Custom and Myth," 

 has an essay on star myths, which is partly based on the 

 idea that there is no real resemblance in most cases between 

 a constellation and the object after which it is named. " The 

 most eccentric modern fiincy," he says, " which can detect 

 what shape it will in clouds, is unable to find any likeness 

 to human or animal forms in the stai-s." Yet the forms are 

 there in the star-groupings, in some cases so strongly sug- 

 gested, that once noted they cannot readily be lost. Mr. 

 Lang himself notes the Crown, where the resemblance is 

 obvious when the heavens themselves are studied, and also 

 easy when the modern constellation-maps are considered. 

 The Dolphin is another example where the fitness of the 

 ancient name is easily .=een. A case or two of this kind 

 ought to suggest that, in other cases, where the resemblance 

 may not appear so obvious, and where there may be no 

 resemblance at all when the modern constellation is exa- 

 mined, either some important changes have taken place 

 among the stars themselves or else the modern constellation 

 differs gi-eatl}' from the old one. 



Eejccting the former supposition as contrary to the 

 evidence — for though stars have changed in brightness there 

 is no evidence of changes numerous enough to spoil the old 

 constellations — we examine the other. But here at once 

 we fi^nd how the difiiculty has arisen. The modern constel- 

 lations not only differ from the ancient ones, but have been 

 formed on an entirely different plan. The old constellations 

 overlapped freely; the modern ones, on account of the 

 special purposes which they are intended to fulfil, fit like 

 the counties in a map of England. The care with which 

 this requirement is now attended to belongs in reality to 

 quite recent times, though probably even in the days of 

 Hipparchus and Eudoxus something of the sort had been 

 attempted. There are clear signs that even long after the 

 Greek lettering of Bayer was adopted, the constellations 

 remained somewhat overlapping. Thus the star which 

 Bayer called Alpha Andromeda; he also called Delta Pegasi, 

 as it formed an essential point in the configuration of both 

 constellations. But as the modern astronomer does not care 

 two straws for the mere configuration of the constellations 

 and cares a gi-eat deal about simplicity and uniformity of 

 nomenclature, one of these names had to be given up. 

 Consequently the modern student of the stars looks in vain 

 for Delta Pegasi in the charts. lie finds Alpha, Beta, and 



Gamma, also Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, and so on, nearly to the 

 end of the alphabet ; but Delta Pegasi he cannot find. Yet 

 the star which was so named is of the second magnitude. 

 In like manner the constellation Auriga wants the star 

 Gamma, which formerly marked the spot where Auriga 

 overlapped Taurus. The star remains, of course; but it 

 now only has one title. Beta Tauri, instead of being called 

 also Gamma Auriga^. 



In modem charts, showing the constellations, we find 

 lingering traces of the old iisage, carelessly though these 

 figures have been dealt with. Thus the Scorpion's claws 

 had been for too long a time and too intricately mixed up 

 with the legs of the Serpent-holder to be readily extricated. 

 By a desperate efibrt the constellation boundaries have been 

 kept apart, though both Scorpio and Ophiuchus have lost 

 stars in the contest. But the figures showing these two 

 constellations still present one claw of Scorpio amicably 

 twined round one of the Serpent-holders legs, the other 

 extending behind the southern scale of the Balance. It 

 may be noticed in passing that the Scorpion and the Balance 

 illustrate the change from the ancient method in another 

 way. It is well known that for a time the Balance disap- 

 peared from Greek star maps, notwithstanding its impoi-tanc* 

 as a zodiacal sign, and its exceedingly ancient standing. 

 Then the claws of the Scorpion were withdrawn and the 

 Scales resumed their place, many imagining that the Balance 

 then first took its place in the heavens. But this is 

 an altogether mistaken position. They merely resumed the 

 place which they had formerly occupied. 



Now when we are no longer limited to the modern con- 

 stellation outlines, in our search for the star-groupings in 

 which men of old found resemblances to various objects, 

 animate and inanimate, we can readily see where these 

 resemblances were imagined. For instiince, whereas the 

 present Lion of the star maps, is an altogther feeble creature, 

 with a nose like a rat, and no tail at all, the ancient Lion, 

 whose head was on Cancer, its mane over Leo Minor, and 

 the tail formed by the group called Berenice's Hair, while 

 his hindpaws fell on the Sextant, and his forepaws over the 

 Sea-serpent's head, was really a magnificent stellar animal, 

 whose form can still be clearly recognised among the stai's. So 

 with the Bear : where our maps show his long tail — imagine 

 a long-tailed bear and what the ancients would have thought 

 of our raising such a nondescript to the heavens ! — fell 

 really the outline of a portion of his back. A large part of 

 his body covered that ridiculous modern constellation, the 

 Hunting Dogs ; his head for a wonder has been left, and 

 most neatly pictures the peculiar head of .a bear (though it 

 also served the Egyptians for the head of a hippopotiimus), 

 while the long plantigrade paws are also most characteristi- 

 cally indicated. He is chased, this real old Bear recognised 

 by all the nations of antiquity from China to Peru (the long 

 way round), by the Herdsman Bootes, with uplifted arms : 

 so, at least, the old watchers of the stars saw the figure of 

 the Ploughman ; but modern astronomers have thought it 

 necessary to deprive him of his right arm, which has been 

 assigned to the constellation Corona. By modern astro- 

 nomers in this case, I refer to the contemporaries of 

 Hipp.archus and Ptolemy. And so with many others of the 

 most interesting of the ancient constellations. They have 

 been separated where they formerly overlapped. Then 

 pieces have been taken off them to form such ridiculous con- 

 stellations as the Clock, the Painter's Easel, the Pneumatic 

 Pump, the Flying Fish, the Chameleon, the Shield of 

 Sobieski, and ahost of other absurdities which discredit the 

 memory of Hevelius, Lacaille, and others who, like them, 

 should have known better. 



(To he conHnued.) 



