196 



Seven cups placed in a straight row represent //the wife of the genius who crosses the 

 rnilky way on the seventh night." ( z ) 

 Before drinking, say this quatrain: 



( a ) f[i| $|5 ~\j. ty Wt $H $$ * ^t „wife of the genius" is the consteliation of the Weaving- 

 girl y-ÊÈj, J^C/j corresponding to the star-triangle <*, s, Z, in Lyra. The „ genius" is the consteliation 



of the Ox-leader or Herdsman (^ &- or &. |a|$J corresponding to a, fè, y in Aquila. The 

 legend says that in the star-triangle a, e, £ is a virgin, grand-daughter of the Queen of Heaven 

 ( ^ "^ )• ^ ne was a ^ wa y s weav i°g very assiduously , so that she was named the Weaving-girl. 

 The Queen of Heaven, pitying her, because she neglected her toilet, married her to the Herdsman or 

 Ox-leader. From that time, however, she became so lazy that the Queen of Heaven had to set her 

 again in her former place, allowing her only once a year, on the seventh night of the se- 

 venth month, to cross the galaxy over the magpie-bridge, in order to meet her husband. The 

 Chinese now take the consteliation of the virgin as the symbol of the female recipiënt principle, 

 ( J|)t 1^* ^ ow 5 whilst they take that of the Ox-leader as the symbol of the male principle. (Linga). 

 The former is worshipped by the Chinese women, on the seventh of the seventh month, with various 

 ceremonies, as: threading seven needies with silk-thread of five different colours during the moonlight; 

 by spreading out parti-coloured threads in the air; by drying their clothes; by sowing, in a porcelain. 

 pot, green-peas, small-peas and wheat, whose shoöts they tie together with red and blue ribbons, etc, 



by which ceremonies they draw prognostics of their skill in female arts. (See the JU JÈ£ ?j|§ Bg£ 



Encyclopaedical record of different thiugs, Section: Seasons I J|ê (ffe -jjjK ) , Chapter: Seventh night 



("b ty\ Art 1— 34; and wI)as Buddha Pantheon", pag. 107—108). 



This whole legend has it'e foundation in an astronomical phenomenon, which my friend, Dr. J. A. 



C Oudemans, had the kindness to calculate for me. On the seventh night of the seventh month, 



at about midnight, the two constellations Weaving-girl (o, f, £ Lyrae) and Herdsman (a, Q, y 



Aquilae) stand equally high. 



At a place situated at a N. Lat. of 35° — say the old capital of China, Chang-ngan, situated at 34°16'45" — , 



these stars stand on the seventh of the seventh month, at midnight, in this way: 



a Lyrae, Azimuth 112°17' W., elevation 44°50'. 



a Aquilae, Azimuth 63°1' W., elevation 45°27'. 



Eoth are thus at about an elevation of 45°; the one stands 22° south of the West, the other, 27° north 



of the West. 



The crossing of the galaxy is, of course, only a fiction, as the fixed stars do not pass it; the Chinese 



seera to be aware of this as they say »that beeause the Weaving-girl looks a moment at the Herdsman, 



it is said that she is married to him." (Vide: j||| 3§|> =§|| sg Appendix to the love-stories of 



the state of Thsi). 



In autumn the magpies migrate and, during the seventh morjth, seem to pass in great numbers the 



galaxy, which gave rise to that part of the legend saying that the weaving-girl passes the galaxy 



over a bridge of Magpies. (Vide: ^ ||g *^p , Hoai-nan-tsz; and jS? *j"|| J||j Appendix to 



the Ki-ya.) 



