Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/218

 in a most delightful way, said it seemed to be the origin of a festival called Tanabata. During this festival the Japanese write poems with dew "from the River of Heaven," which is collected fresh from yam leaves. These poems are written on strips of blue, green, red, yellow and white paper to match the colors of the stars, and are tied on bamboo stalks set up about the houses. Mr. Hearn in his "Romance of the Milky Way" refers to the story in this exquisite manner:

There are any number of references to the Milky Way throughout the realms of poetry. Amelia describes it as

Milton—an

Ovid—a "high-road" "whose groundwork is of stars":