HOW TO FIND THF CONSTELLATIONS. 141 
a huge club. From the lowest star in the belt, named Al- 
nitah, extends downward a line of rather faint stars, some¬ 
what curved, about four degrees. These constitute the 
sword. 
The belt is sometimes denominated the Three Stars , be¬ 
cause, as was stated above, there is no other group like them 
in the whole visible heavens as regards position and bright¬ 
ness. They have also been called the Three Kings, because 
they point out the Hyades and Pleiades on one side and Siri¬ 
us, the Dog Star, on the other. In Job they are called the 
“bands of Orion,” while the ancient husbandman called 
them Jacob’s Rod and sometimes the Rake. In 1807 the 
University of Eeipsic gave them the name of Napoleon, 
but the more commom name for them is the Yard, doubt¬ 
less bestowed from the fact above stated that the two end 
stars are just three degrees apart and the line joining them 
is divided into two equal parts by the third star,very like 
the divisions of a yardstick. Like the latter, they also 
serve as a unit to measure the distances between other 
stars. The line of stars constituting the sword is also 
sometimes spoken of as the Ell, because it is about once 
and a quarter times the length of the Yard. Commonly 
they are mentioned in connection with each other as the 
Ell and Yard. 
Beautiful and magnificent as this constellation is to the 
lover of the stars, as a group, equally so are they individ¬ 
ually when seen through the telescope, all the stars, as 
above mentioned, being double except Mintaka and Saiph. 
Besides this, the star Theta, in the sword, is a multiple 
star, showing four components in an ordinary telescope, so 
arranged as to form a four-sided figure called a trapezium. 
This is the so-called Trapezium of Orion, and is surround¬ 
ed by a large irregular nebula, the most conspicuous in 
the whole heavens. 
Whoever once looks up to this constellation and learns 
