Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/245

Rh In the Euphratean star list this constellation bears the title of "Bird of the Forest."

Before the time of Eratosthenes (the third century ) the name of the star group among the Greeks was simply "the Bird."

This portion of the sky seems to abound with birds,— as if they hovered over the region of the heavens known to the ancients as "the Sea." Here we find besides the Swan, Aquila the Eagle, the flying Eagle, and Lyra, which was regarded as the falling or swooping Eagle.

Sayce states that the Assyrian name of the Swan is supposed to be "Tussu," while Houghton has been unable to discover any Hebrew, Assyrian, or Phœnician name for the constellation.

The brightest stars in Cygnus form the so-called "Northern Cross," a perfect and beautiful figure, which Lowell thus alludes to in his poem, "New Year's Eve, 1844":

The Cross is formed by the stars α, γ, η, β Cygni, marking the upright along the Milky Way, more than twenty degrees in length, and ζ, ε, γ, δ Cygni, forming the transverse.

The early Christians regarded this figure as the Cross of Calvary, as did Schiller. The Northern Cross is certainly much more perfect in form than the famed Southern Cross, and setting in the west, when it assumes an upright position, it presents a beautiful appearance.

Christmas eve at nine o'clock, this brilliant cross of stars stands upright on the western hills, outlined against the sky as if beckoning all beholders onward and upward. A beautiful symbol of the Christian faith, glorious, perfect, and eternal, and especially significant at this season of the year.

Between α, γ, and ε Cygni is one of the vacant spaces in the Milky Way, a black and seemingly bottomless abyss, the brink over which man peers into the profound and