Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/150

98 Sinus varied in accordance with the different functions the Egyptians ascribed to the star. "When they wished to signify that it opened the year, it was represented as a porter bearing keys, or else they gave it two heads, one of an old man to represent the passing year, and the other of a younger to denote the succeeding year. When they would represent it as giving warning of the inundation of the Nile they painted it as a dog. To illustrate what they were to do when it appeared Anubis had in his arms a stew-pot, wings to his feet, a large feather under his arm, two reptiles, a tortoise and a duck behind him."

Mrs. Martin thus alludes to this glorious sun: "He comes richly dight in many colours, twinkling fast, and changing with each motion from tints of ruby to sapphire and emerald and amethyst. As he rises higher and higher in the sky he gains composure and his beams now sparkle like the most brilliant diamond, not pure white but slightly tinged with iridescence."

Blake gives us the following interesting description of Sirius in the role of herald of the inundation of the Nile:

"This star seems to have been intimately connected with Egypt and to have derived its name from that country, and in this way: The overflowing of the Nile was always preceded by an Etesian wind (that is an annual periodic wind answering to the monsoons) which, blowing from north to south about the time of the passage of the sun beneath the stars of the Crab, drove the mists to the south, and accumulated them over the country whence the Nile takes its source, causing abundant rains, and hence the flood. The greatest importance was attached to the foretelling the time of this event, so that the people might be ready with their provisions, and their places of security. The moon was no use for this purpose, but the stars were, for the inundation commenced when the sun was in the stars of the Lion. At this time the stars of the Crab just appeared in the morning, but with them at some distance from the ecliptic, Sirius rose. The morning rising of this