328 THE COMING OF MAN 



winter, also, you will see a pretty little star cluster, 

 called the Pleiades. About this constellation, too, 

 the Greeks told a story of which you heard in the 

 chapter about electricity; for these are the seven 

 sisters of Phaethon, those who wept the amber tears. 

 The Greeks believed that the gods had such pity 

 for the poor weeping sisters, that they changed them 

 into stars. The Hebrews knew and loved these 

 stars, and wrote about them. In the book of Job, a 

 part of our Bible, written many centuries ago, are 

 these lines: 



Canst thou bind the cluster of the Pleiades, 

 Or loose the bands of Orion? 



You need not wait for winter to see the Great 

 Dipper. It is always in the northern sky, for it 

 never sets. Sometimes it is upside down, and some- 

 times on one end or on the handle, but it is always 

 there. The two bright stars of its front edge point 

 directly toward the North Star, so we call them ''the 

 Pointers," because by them we can always find the 

 North Star. 



In the bend of the handle of the Dipper is a beau- 

 tiful double star. Some persons have such strong 

 eyesight that they can see that it is double without 

 the aid of an opera glass. See if you can find the 

 star, and whether it appears to you single or double. 



You surely know that gleaming band of thickly 

 clustered stars stretching across the sky; that you 

 can always find. It is called the Milky Way. It 

 is made up of multitudes of stars, so far away that 

 we cannot see them separately. Their light blends 



