HOW TO BIND THH CONSTKBTATIONS. 183 
ing the Milky Way. This is the constellation Coma Ber- 
enicis or Berenice’s Hair. Although the stars which com¬ 
pose it are all so small as to be rarely distinguished in the 
abundant light of the full moon, yet it is not easy to mis¬ 
take it for any other group in the same region of the sky. 
Berenice was of royal descent and a lady of great 
beauty, who married Ptolomy Soter, one of the kings of 
Egypt, whom she loved with much tenderness. When he 
was going on a dangerous expedition against the Assyri¬ 
ans, she vowed to dedicate her hair to the goddess of beau¬ 
ty if he returned in safety. Some time after the victorious 
return of her husband, the locks which, agreeably to her 
vow, she had deposited in the temple of Venus, disap- 
pered. The king expressed great regret at the loss of 
what he so much prized; whereupon Conon, his astrono¬ 
mer, publicly reported that Jupiter had taken away the 
queen’s locks from the temple and placed them among the 
stars. 
“There Berenice’s locks first rose so bright, 
The heavens bespangling with dishevelled light.” 
Conon, being sent for by the king, pointed out the constel¬ 
lation, saying: “There behold the locks of the queen.’’ 
These being among the ungrouped stars until that time, 
and not known as a constellation, the king was satisfied 
with the declaration of the astronomer, and the queen be¬ 
came reconciled to the partiality of the gods. 
Directly below Eeo is a region of small stars below the 
fourth magnitude, comprising a space about fifteen degrees 
square, the celestial equator cutting it exactly in halves. 
This is the constellation Sextant, and contains in all forty- 
one stars. It is so called because of its supposed resem¬ 
blance to the nautical instrument of that name. 
