( 2 3 0 ) 



make no difference between the planets and fixed 

 ftars, unlefs it be their dividing thefe laft as we 

 do, into conftellatians. The Pleiades, they call 

 the Dancers , and give the name of the Bear to 

 the tour hrft ftars of that conftellation, which 

 we call the Great Bear j the three others which 

 compofe its tail are, according to them, three 

 hunters who purfue the bear j and the little ftar 

 which accompanies that in the middle, is, with 

 them a kettle with which the fecond is loaded. 

 The Indians of Acadia call this and the next con- 

 ftellation fimply the Great and Little Bear ; but 

 is there not reafon to fufpect, that when they fpoke 

 in this manner to the Sieur Lefcarbot, they only 

 repeated what they had before heard from the 

 French themfelves. 



The Indians, for the mofl part, call the polar 

 ftar, the ftar which has no motion. It is this 

 which directs their courfe by night, as the fun 

 ferves them for a compafs by day. They have 

 likewife other marks by which to diftinguifh, the 

 north. They pretend to have obferved that the 

 tops of trees incline a little to that fide, as alfo 

 that the interior pellicles of their bark are thicker 

 on that fide. They do not, however, truft fo en- 

 tirely to this, as to neglect other precautions to pre- 

 vent their wandering, and to help them to find 

 their way back to a place from whence they had fee 

 out. 



As to what regards the courfe of the ftars, the 

 caufes of the celeftial phenomena, the nature of 

 meteors, and other fuch like things ; they are with 

 refpect to all thefe, as with refpect to every thing 

 which does not affect the fenfes, profoundly ignorant 



