Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/142

90 The Manger was a celebrated weather portent, as early as the days of Aratos and Homer. Aratos thus speaks of it in this connection:

Pliny wrote: "If Præsepe is not visible in a clear sky it is a presage of a violent storm."

In China the Manger was known, says Allen, by the unsavoury appellation, "Exhalation of Piled-up Corpses," and within one degree of it Mercury was observed from that country on June 9, 118 One of the Chinese names for Cancer was "the Red Bird," and it was supposed to mark one of the residences of the Red or Southern Emperor.

In astrology, like all clusters, the Beehive threatened mischief and blindness.

In this constellation was located the 6th lunar station of the Hindus, known as "Pushya," meaning "Flower." It was sometimes figured as a crescent, and again as the head of an arrow. If lines are drawn through the stars γ, δ, and θ on the diagram it will be seen that these figures are well named. The Hindu figure of a "flower" in this region of the sky reveals a strange coincidence, to say the least. In Peruvian astronomy Cancer was known as "Cantut Pata," or "Terrace of the Cantut," the cantut