Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/521



, of all those who have turned their eyes to the stars, has not wondered at that mysterious cloud that twines its devious way across the sky like a river's mist, awaiting the breath of the dawn-wind! And who, realising that this veil that flutters across the heaven is woven of a myriad close-set suns, has not felt a sense of awe and reverence steal upon him, a spirit of humility that takes possession of his soul!

The ancient Akkadians regarded the Milky Way as "a Great Serpent," or "the River of the Shepherd's Hut," and "the River of the Divine Lady."

Anaxagoras, who lived 550, and Aratos knew it as "," "that shining wheel, men call it milk."

The Greeks called it "the Circle of the Galaxy," and during all historic time it was regarded as "the River of Heaven," and "Eridanus," the Stream of Ocean.

In mythology it represented the stream into which Phaëton and the chariot of the sun were hurled by the enraged Jupiter.

Orientals fancied here a river of shining silver, whose fish were frightened by the new moon, which they imagined to be a hook.

Aside from the resemblance of the Galaxy to a serpent, and a river, the most popular notion of it among all people and in every age has been to regard the Milky Way as a