Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/341

Rh also likened the four stars forming the quadrilateral which identifies the constellation, to four camels slaking their thirst in the near-by river in the sky, the Milky Way, or possibly Eridanus, the River Po.

Hewitt says that in early Egyptian astronomy Lepus was "the Boat of Osiris," the great god of that country, and identified with Orion.

The Chinese called the constellation "a shed." Lepus has been thought by some to represent certain Biblical figures such as "the Magdalen in tears," "Judas Iscariot," or "Cain driven from the face of the earth to the face of the moon."

α Leporis was called "Arneb" by the Arabs. It is a double star, the stars being coloured pale yellow and grey. It culminates at 9 on Jan. 24th.

Six seconds away from Alpha is situated Sir John Herschel's 3780, a sextuple star, a beautiful object even in a small telescope.

β Leporis, known to the Arabs as "Nihal," is a triple star of magnitudes 3d, 10th, and 11th.

Lepus contains the celebrated variable R. Leporis, of a deep crimson colour. It was discovered by Hind in 1845, and is sometimes referred to as "Hind's Crimson Star." It has been likened to "a drop of blood on a black field." No other star in these latitudes compares with it in depth of colour.

Just west of Lepus is the little asterism known as "the Brandenburg Sceptre," designed by Kirch in 1688. It contains but four stars of the 4th and 5th magnitudes, and the sceptre is represented in Burritt's Atlas as standing upright in the sky.