Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/50

16 The Assyrians looked upon the stars as divinities, endowed with beneficent or evil powers.

Among the Chaldeans the sky was regarded as a boat, shaped like a basket. The space below was the earth, which was flat and surrounded by water.

The Egyptians worshipped Osiris and Isis as ancestors, and showed Plutarch their graves, and the stars into which they had been metamorphosed.

The ancient Peruvians thought that there was not a beast or bird on earth whose shape or image did not shine in the sky. They considered the luminaries and stars guardian divinities and worshipped them. They also thought that the stars were the children of the sun and moon.

The Hebrews had a notion that the sun, moon, and stars danced before Adam in Paradise.

The Bushmen, or early inhabitants of Africa, regarded the more conspicuous stars as men, lions, tortoises, etc. They believed that the sun, moon, and stars were once mortals on earth, or even animals, or inorganic substances which happened to get translated to the skies.

In New Zealand heroes were thought to become stars of greater or less brightness according to the number of their victims slain in battle.

The North American Indians believed that many of the stars were living creatures, and knew Ursa Major as a Bear, the same figure known in the Far East.

The Tannese Islanders divided the heavens into constellations with definite traditions to account for the canoes, ducks, and children that they see in the skies.

In the South Pacific islands dying men will announce their intention of becoming a star, and even mention the particular part of the heavens where they are to be looked for.

The Eskimos thought that some of the stars had been men and others different sorts of animals and fishes, which was also the mythical belief of the Greeks and Romans.