♦ KNOW^LEDGE 



[September 1, 1886. 



The following is an abridged account of the myth of " Tlie 

 Star Family, or Celestial Sisters." * 



Waupee, or White Hawk, was a great hunter. He was 

 tall, and full of life and strength. One day wliih-st wander- 

 ing through the forest he suddenly found himself on the 

 borders of a prairie. It was covered with grass and flowers, 

 and presently he noticed a ring worn through the grass 

 without any path leading to or from it in any direction. 

 He determined to hide himself behind some bushes and 

 watch the place. 



Soon he heard, high in the heavens. 

 Issuing from the feathery clouds, 



Sounds of music, quiclv descending. 

 As it angels came in crowds. 



Looking up he saw a small speck in the sky, which gradually 

 beaime larger and larger. At last he .saw a basket contain- 

 ing twelve beautiful maidens, who leaped out of the basket 

 as soon as it touched the ground. They danced around in 

 the ring, beating time on a silver ball, which made the 

 beautiful music Waupee had heard. He gazed at the faiiies 

 in wonder, and at last rushed out from his hiding-place and 

 tried to capture one of them. However, they were too 

 nimble for him, and, leaping into the basket, they were soon 

 on their way to the sky again. 



Waupee was vexed, but next day he hid behind the 

 bushes again, and disguised himself as an opossum. The 

 sisters came down again as before ; but one, sharper than 

 the rest, saw the opossum creeping towards them. She 

 warned her sisters, and they sprang into the basket, and 

 were soon on their way to the sky. However, when they 

 were half-way up, one of the sisters sugge.sted that perhaps 

 the opossum only wanted to show them how the ball-game 

 was played on earth. " No," .said the youngest, "quick, let 

 us ascend." 



Next day Waupee changed himself to a mouse, and 

 seeing an old stump of a tree, he moved it near the magic 

 circle, and hid himself inside. When the sisters came down 

 next day, one wiser than the rest noticed the altered position 

 of the stump ; but the others, laughing at her, ran around 

 the stump and struck it in fun. Waupee ran out and 

 chased the youngest, whom he caught and carried off in 

 triumph. The rest jumped into the basket, and returned to 

 their home in the skies. 



For awhile Waupee was very happy with his beautiful 

 bride, and his joy was increased by the birth of a beautiful 

 son. But his bride became very homesick, and one day 

 when Waupee was out hunting she made a wicker basket, 

 and, going to the magic ring, she got into the basket with 

 her little son, and, singing the magic chant, she soon rejoined 

 her sisters. 



Waupee, hearing the music, looked up, and seeing his 

 wife and child ascending in the air, he cried pitifully, and 

 could not be consoled. 



After a year had passed, the father of Waupee's bride 

 said to her, " Go, my child, and take your son down to his 

 father, and ask him to come and live with us. Tell him to 

 bring a specimen of each kind of bird and animal he kills in 

 the cha.se." 



Waupee was overcome with joy to see her again, and, 

 hearing her father's mes.«age, he hunted for many days. 

 He kept a claw, foot, or wing of every species he ciiptured, 

 and ascending in the basket with his wife and child, he pre- 

 sented them to his fether-in-law, the star chief. The latter 

 invited all his people to a great feast, and bade them choose 

 from the collection Waupee had made. As they cho e a 

 wing or a claw, they became animals and ran away. 

 Waupee and his wife and child chose a white hawk's feather. 



* Smithsonian Institute, p. 67. 1881. 



(Iracefully spreading out their white wings, they descended 

 to earth, where the species are still to be found.* 



This tribe of Indians possibly accounted in the above way 

 for the disappearance of some constellation. It might have 

 been the constellation t'onia Berenices, which is visible 

 during the suaimer months. It is composed of twelve stars 

 — representing the twelve sisters — and is as much like a 

 basket in shape as the Great Bear is Hke a bear. Or else 

 the myth may refer to Corona Borealis, which bears a still 

 greater resemblance to a basket during the month of June, 

 though it has not the requisite number of stars. However, 

 in the southern map for July in the editor's " Easy Sbir 

 Lessons " the constellation lesembles a basket, and includes 

 twelve stars and an extra star, which may be Waupee. 



THE STAR-CLOUDS IN THE .PLEIADES. 



By Richard A. Proctor. 



MONG the arguments which I advanced 

 seventeen years ago to show that the 

 various forms of nebulas or star-clouds 

 visible with telescopic aid in the stiir- 

 deptlis belong to our own stellar system, 

 none seemed to me more convincing 

 than the way in which stars and nebulous 

 matter aie intermixed in the same region 



of the heavens. 



The association between the stars of our .system and the 



nebula^ lonij regarded as external universes is shown " most 



Pig. 1. jup OF THE Pleiades by Tewpel, showing the 



Nebula extending from Merope, &c. 



strikingly," I said in my " Other Worlds," " by the obvious 

 connection between the figure of the irregular nebula> and 

 the arrangement of the .star-groups seen in the same field 

 of view. There is not one of the inegular nebuhe which 

 does not exhibit this peculiarity in the most striking manner. 



♦ Schoolcraft, " Hiawatha Legends," p. 116. 



