Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/477

Rh   Ovid gives a slightly different version of the legend. According to him, Juno changed Callisto into a bear, and when Areas was out hunting and unwittingly about to slay his mother in the guise of a bear, Jupiter placed the bear and the hunter among the stars.

According to another legend this constellation represented a Princess, transformed into a bear on account of her pride in rejecting all suitors. For this her skin was nailed to the sky as a warning to other proud maidens.

Aratos made the two Bears the Cretan nurses of the infant Jupiter, afterwards raised to heaven for their devotion to their charge. Lewis disregards this legend on the ground that Crete never contained any bears.

A modern Grecian legend relates that originally the sky was supposed to be made of glass which touched the earth on both sides. It was soft and thin, and some one nailed a bearskin upon it. The nails became stars, and the tail of the Bear is represented by three bright stars, which are also known as "the handle of the Great Dipper."

The Iroquois Indians had a legend concerning this constellation which was as follows:

"A party of hunters pursuing a bear were attacked by three monster stone giants, who destroyed all but three of them. These, together with the bear, were carried up to the sky by invisible hands. The bear is still being pursued by the three hunters. The first carries a bow, the second a kettle to cook him in (this is represented by the little star Alcor), and the third carries sticks with which to light a fire when the bear is slain. In the autumn the first hunter hits the bear, and the bloodstains from the wounded bear tinge the autumn foliage." This legend is similar to that of the Housatonic Indians, who roamed through the valley from Pittsfield to Great Barrington. They believed  23