notions that the Greenlanders have as to the origin of the heavenly lights—­as sun, moon, and stars—­are very nonsensical; in that they pretend they have formerly been as many of their own ancestors, who, on different accounts, were lifted up to heaven, and became such glorious celestial bodies.’  Again, he writes:  ’Their notions about the stars are that some of them have been men, and others different sorts, of animals and fishes.’  But every reader of Ovid knows that this was the very mythical theory of the Greeks and Romans.  The Egyptians, again, worshipped Osiris, Isis, and the rest as ancestors, and there are even modern scholars, like Mr. Loftie in his ‘Essay of Scarabs,’ who hold Osiris to have been originally a real historical person.  But the Egyptian priests who showed Plutarch the grave of Osiris, showed him, too, the stars into which Osiris, Isis, and Horus had been metamorphosed.  Here, then, we have Greeks, Egyptians, and Eskimo, all agreed about the origin of the heavenly lights, all of opinion that ‘they have formerly been as many of their own ancestors.’

The Australian general theory is:  ’Of the good men and women, after the deluge, Pundjel (a kind of Zeus, or rather a sort of Prometheus of Australian mythology) made stars.  Sorcerers (Biraark) can tell which stars were once good men and women.’  Here the sorcerers have the same knowledge as the Egyptian priests.  Again, just as among the Arcadians, ’the progenitors of the existing tribes, whether birds, or beasts, or men, were set in the sky, and made to shine as stars.’ {130}

We have already given some Australian examples in the stories of the Pleiades, and of Castor and Pollux.  We may add the case of the Eagle.  In Greece the Eagle was the bird of Zeus, who carried off Ganymede to be the cup-bearer of Olympus.  Among the Australians this same constellation is called Totyarguil; he was a man who, when bathing, was killed by a fabulous animal, a kind of kelpie; as Orion, in Greece, was killed by the Scorpion.  Like Orion, he was placed among the stars.  The Australians have a constellation named Eagle, but he is our Sinus, or Dog-star.

The Indians of the Amazon are in one tale with the Australians and Eskimo.  ‘Dr. Silva de Coutinho informs me,’ says Professor Hartt, {131} ’that the Indians of the Amazonas not only give names to many of the heavenly bodies, but also tell stories about them.  The two stars that form the shoulders of Orion are said to be an old man and a boy in a canoe, chasing a peixe boi, by which name is designated a dark spot in the sky near the above constellation.’  The Indians also know monkey-stars, crane-stars, and palm-tree stars.