192 TJie Story of the Constellations. [Sess. 



to Mr Maunder (' Astronomy without a Telescope ') there are 

 four chief sources of information : first, tradition, and the evi- 

 dence derived from folk-lore. This source is rapidly diminish- 

 ing in value, but very considerable interest must attach to 

 the thoughts and lore connected with the stars, possessed by 

 isolated peoples and tribes of the earth. Then comes docu- 

 mentary evidence, allusions in classical writers and in the 

 astronomical records of China and India. The third source 

 is the evidence yielded by monuments and tablets unearthed 

 in Egypt, and more particularly in the valley of the Euphrates. 

 Very much may be hoped for here. According to Mr Maunder 

 in his book, ' Astronomy without a Telescope,' " Mr Robert 

 Brown, jun., in particular, has followed up this subject for 

 many years with the greatest industry, and has traced back 

 many of the constellations beyond the Greeks from whom we 

 received them, and the Semitic Babylonians, to whom the 

 Greeks were in their turn indebted for them, to those 

 Turanian peoples who inhabited Mesopotamia before the 

 Semitic invasion, the Akkadians and Sumerians." The con- 

 ventional figures delineating the constellations have themselves 

 come down to us with but little alteration in their outline, 

 as may be seen on a sculptured marble globe which was dis- 

 covered at Rome ; it is the oldest known representation of 

 the heavens, and is believed to be an exact copy of the 

 celebrated sphere of Eudoxus, who flourished about 380 B.C., 

 and derived much of his astronomical knowledge from the 

 Egyptians. The fourth and last source of information con- 

 cerning the antiquity of the constellations is afforded by the 

 constellation groups themselves. This internal evidence is 

 very limited, but perhaps the most valuable of all, and can be 

 used as a check on assertions or theories based upon the 

 information gathered from a study of the first three sources. 

 Mr Maunder says : " The chief interest of the evidence 

 afforded by the last-named source is the light which it gives 

 as to the time and place when the constellations were devised, 

 and the reasons it supplies for concluding that they were 

 designed for the most part on a deliberate plan. 



"It is sufficiently well known to every one that 48 of the 

 constellations come down from extremely ancient times. The 

 places of the principal stars are given in ' Almagest,' Ptolemy's 



