ASTRONOMY OF THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. 73 
place in aboriginal legends. Canopus is the male, and the small 
red star No. 966 in King Charles’ Oak, the female Crow. Strangely 
e is the Prometheus, the fire-bringer, whose good deeds 
are celebrated in fire-legends over the greatest part of Australia. 
Having got something like systematic arrangements, the ques- 
tion occurred whether other arrangements might be discoverable 
from the materials Mr. Stanbridge supplied, though they were not 
pointed out by him. Thus we find that Arcturus (Marpean- 
kurrk) is the mother of Antares, which the Boorong people 
& systematic grouping has been made. Three stars near 
other, and in a line or nearly so, form a starting-point. Hence 
we have the three stars in Orion’s belt, the three in the Scorpion, 
i i All are 
‘ with Antares in the middle, and the three in 
brought into service. These three triads of stars are of such a 
stand out im a 
Those 
The three stars in Orion are the most regular in size and position. 
Of the three stars in the Eagle group, the one in the middle is by 
far the largest ; and of the Scorpion group, the one in the middle 
18 not only the largest but it is also the red star Antares, the 
rival of the planet Mars, which sometimes comes in the vicinity of 
near together, becomes, as a whole, a starting-point to be asso- 
Clated with other points to form a new linear group on & larger 
forming a much longer line across the heavens. The triad 0! 
in the Scorpion becomes a starting-point from which a line is pro- 
tar Vega in another. Thus the triadic arrangement is fully car- 
nied out in three out of four groups. 
