William Tyler Olcott

“ Even with people who do not know them by sight and have not felt the sweet influences of the Pleiades, there is a vague memory of some story about a lost Pleiad that stirs an emotion suggesting something romantic and sad. The Pleiades form in truth a delightful group of twinkling unfathomable stars, singularly fascinating and singularly persistent in their brilliancy. ”

“ He also refers to the rising of the Pleiades as the time for the harvest, while the period at which they disappeared for some time, he termed ploughing time.
The heliacal rising of this star group, that is its rising with the sun, heralded the summer season, while its acronical rising, when it rose as the sun set, marked the beginning of winter, and led to the association of the group with the rainy season, and with floods, so often mentioned by the poets. Aratos thus expressed its acronical rising:
Men mark their rising with Sol's setting light,
Forerunners of the Winter's gloomy night. ”

“ While the children were thus engaged, an old man dressed in white feathers, whose white hair shone like silver, appeared among them and bid them cease dancing lest evil befall them, but the children danced on unmindful of the warning, and presently they observed that they were rising little by little into the air, and one exclaimed, 'Do not look back for something strange is taking place.' One of the children disobeyed this warning and looking back became a falling star. ”

“ Far removed from the Aztecs we find the people of Japan in their great national festival, the Feast of Lanterns, a feast that is alive to-day, commemorating at this same season of the year some great calamity which was supposed to have overwhelmed the race of man, in the far distant past, when these seven little stars were prominent in the heavens.
In the Talmud we find a curious legend associating the Pleiades with an all-destroying flood, expressed as follows:
"When the Holy One, blessed be He, wished to bring the deluge upon the world. ”

“ At the end of every period of fifty-two years, in the month of November when the Pleiades would culminate at midnight, these rude people imagined the world would end. Human sacrifices were offered, while the entire population passed the night upon their knees awaiting their doom. ”

“ The other children reached the high heavens safely and now we see them in the star group known as the Pleiades."
Another Indian legend relates that "seven brothers once upon a time took the warpath and discovered a beautiful maiden living all alone whom they adopted as their sister. One day they all went hunting save the youngest, who was left to guard his sister. Shortly after the departure of the hunters, the younger brother discovered game and set off in pursuit of it, leaving his sister unprotected. Whereupon a powerful buffalo came to her lodge and carried her away. ”

“ Alcyone is famous as locating the supposed centre of the universe, the point about which the starry heavens revolved. The German astronomer Mädler held this view, but there is no satisfactory reason for his opinion. Alcyone has three companion stars, and the three form a beautiful little triangle, a fine sight in a small telescope. The star culminates at 9 p.m., on the last night of the year. Miss Clerke considers that Alcyone exceeds the sun in brilliancy one thousand times. ”

“ Atlas, the father, has his star. Riccioli called the star "Pater Atlas." It represents the mighty man, who, condemned to bear the dome of heaven on his shoulders, was transformed into a mountain. It is a double star and I believe it does not bear claim to be the Lost Pleiad.
Pleione was the mother of the seven sisters, and her star may be the true Lost Pleiad, as the spectroscope reveals evidence of its variable character. It has been suggested that the Lost Pleiad may have been a nova, that is, a star which flashed out brilliantly for a time, only to fade away as its fires grew cold. ”

“ Many Masonic organisations of the present day have memorial services to the dead about the middle of November, a survival of the universal recognition of the season of the year as commemorating the destruction of the world, when the Pleiades culminated at midnight. ”

“ Summer and winter, harvesting and seed time.
One myth concerning the Pleiades relates that they were so beautiful in appearance that Orion unceasingly pursued them, much to their discomfiture. They appealed to Jupiter for assistance and he pitying them changed them into doves. Thereupon they flew into the sky and found a refuge among the stars.
The Smith Sound Eskimos have the following legend concerning the Pleiades, which group they call "Nanuq," meaning "the Bear": "A number of dogs were pursuing a bear on the ice. ”

“ The actual observance at the present day of this festival is to be found among the Australian savages. At the midnight culmination of the Pleiades, in November, they still hold a New Year's corroboree in honour of this group of stars, which they say are "very good to the black fellows." The corroborees are connected with a worship of the dead. Still another custom associated with the Pleiades which has come down to us is the November date of our elections ”

“ The Pleiades were among the first mentioned stars in the astronomical literature of China, one record of them bearing the early date of 2357 b.c., when Aceyone, the lucida of the group, was near the vernal equinox. The Chinese young women worshipped these stars as the Seven Sisters of Industry. ”