PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 125 



The Pleiades as the Hesperides, Isle of the Blest, or Place of Future 

 Bliss. By J. Cleland Hamilton, M.A., LL.B. 



(Read 14th November, igoj.) 



Mr. Hamilton referred to Dr. Wallace'.s theory, that the solar system is the 

 centre of the universe, as controverting both scientific and classical notions, and 

 not yet at least generally held. He then took up in detail legends of many nations 

 which pointed to the stars of the Pleiad group as the resting place of their ances- 

 tors' spirits and their own heaven. Such were the Arabs, the Berbers of North 

 Africa, and Dyaks of Borneo. The British Druids had an ancient mythology 

 drawn from the same source as that of the Greeks, had gods of characters similar 

 to Pluto, Mercury and Zeus, and, in strange metaphoric poems, referred to the 

 Pleiades. Their midnight ceremonies in the autumn, at the time of our Hallow- 

 e'en, commemorated the season when the Seven Stars were highest in the visible 

 firmament. 



The lecturer discussed legends of the Adipones, the Hurons, Iroquois, Black- 

 feet and other native American races, which made their heaven where the sun sets. 

 Hiawatha's departure to the west in his birch canoe was compared to that of King 

 Arthur in the Druid legend, the basis of Tennyson's " Mort d'Arthur. " "The 

 White Stone Canoe," an Ojibway legend translated into Hiawathan metre, by the 

 late Sir James D. Edgar, represents the young brave Abeka, seeking his lost love, 

 Wabose, iu the redman's spirit land, where he finds her on a beautiful happy 

 island, and here is repeated the Greek legend of the "Isle of the Blest" with 

 a Prometiiean moral. Such beliefs were found also among the Hydahs, Eskimos, 

 Chippewayaus, Salish, Chiwaks, and, throughout the continent, to California. 

 The curious myths of the Polynesians were referred to, and examples given of 

 many grange coincidences with the legends of Egypt and Phoenicia, and paral- 

 leling those as to Atlas, Hercules, Pluto and other deities of Greece. They had, 

 too, an " Isle of the Blest," but knew only six Pleiades, which they called 

 " Matariki "—" Little Eyes," or " Tau Ono," The Six. They were objects of 

 worship in these islands until the introduction of Christianity iu 1857. 



The ideas of the Hindus, Chinese and other Eastern people as to the place of 

 the future were reviewed. The difterent views exiiressed by Homer, Hesiod, 

 Lucian, Pindar and Plato were discussed. There were depicted beautiful plains 

 without wiater, fear or pain, where fruit of every kind abounded and joys never 

 ceased. They were placed in the West, where the sun goes down, in a happy isle, 

 where gentle sea breezes blow. Plato taught that only those enjoyed such bliss 

 who had spent life in holy philosophical pursuits, useful to their fellow-men. He 

 placed this pure abode iu " the upper parts of the earth in places not easy to des- 

 cribe." The conception of the Hurons, Iroquois and Algouquins as to this place 

 of bliss, is described by Colonel Garrick Mallory and Dr. A. F. Chamberlain, the 

 archaeologists, and by the historians, Bancroft and Schoolcraft, in verj' similar 

 expressions. The essayist quoted several beautiful Greek epitaphs in which such 

 ideas are embodied along with hope of future meeting. He tlien explained the 

 theory which assigned Alcyone, tlie chief star of the Pleiades, to the position 

 practically of the centre of the universe and the place of future bliss. This great 

 star was often so regarded and called "the central one " and "the leading one." 

 However much appears to sustain such theory in classic story and in legends of 

 uncivilized tribe-, it was admitted that such claim is not as yet supported by 

 science. 



The lecturer concluded his discourse, stating that these many widespread 

 traditions furuish a mass of evidence in favour of a common origin of mankind and 

 of the existence of a general belief in life hereafter, where those who bad here 

 lived worthily would meet their ancestors and friends iu a beautiful happy place 

 somewhere, either on an island iu a western ocean or in the most favoured of the 

 great orbs, which, to use Shelley's words, form " Heaven's constellated 

 wilderness." 



