Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/228

160 up by a person who has gone forth from the Ark, the Centaur, and we see in the sky the Altar, and smoke arising from it represented by the Milky Way. Curiously enough we also find a Bow set in a cloud, not the rainbow, but the Bow of the Archer, set in the Milky Way, the cloud of smoke. This connection of Sagittarius with the group of Deluge pictures may seem a bit far fetched, but even without it the picture of the Flood and the story in Genesis are well borne out in the constellations, and we find in this group the best of evidence that they were combined and placed here as a record for all time.

In addition to the constellations named as belonging to this group, Aquarius and Eridanus have been said to represent the Deluge, and Pisces and Cetus, the fishes and whale swimming in the "deep waters."

In Genesis, as Maunder points out, Noah is represented as a man. In the constellation picture, he who issues forth from the Ship is a Centaur, one who partook of two natures. There is certainly a significance in these figures of the Centaurs. They were a very ancient people, regardless of the fact whether such creatures ever existed, or whether, as has been supposed, they were people who tamed horses, and appearing on horseback, an uncommon sight, resembled at a distance a figure half man, half horse.

The significance of these figures in the heavens lies in the fact that the inventor of the constellations was familiar with the figure of a horse, which we find depicted in Pegasus and the distinct figure of the ancient Centaur, half man, half horse.

Corvus was known to the Arabs as "the Camel," and "the Tent." It forms the 11th Hindu lunar station, known as "Hasta," meaning the "Hand." Schickard thought Corvus represented Elias's Crow.

The Arabs called Alpha Corvi "Al-Chiba," which was also the Desert title for the constellation. Ulugh Beg and other Arabian astronomers called it "the Raven's Beak."