Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/216

 the road, were camp fires which cheered and warmed the travelers on their way.

Aristotle imagined that this misty arch of light was the result of gaseous exhalations which had risen from the earth and now rested between the region of the ether and that of the planets.

Posidonious thought that it was a compound of fire less dense than that of the stars but more luminous. Still others fancifully considered it to be the course of the sun-chariot after Phæthon had lost control of his horses and that along here were the imprints of the hot hoofs and the ruts scorched by the fiery wheels.

A more modern legend of Swedish origin tells of the construction of the Milky Way by two lovers who were mourning for each other on separate stars. After toiling a thousand years they built this "bridge of starry light" which spanned the space between the two stars and enabled them to once more be united.

The Chinese, Japanese and Koreans thought of the Milky Way as a river. An ancient tale, current in these countries, connects this "river" and the constellations of Lyra and Aquila in the quaint and charming romance of two lovers who were so happily married that they could not bear to be separated. As a result, they neglected their duties to such an extent that the God of the Firmament placed the bride on a constellation on one side of the celestial