"
"Tell them in a few words."
"Astronomy is not my province, and I know little of it, but still I
will tell you in a few words. The vault up there represents the sky,
the board lying on the table, the earth. Now the wise speak thus: In
the beginning Earth (Sibu) and Heaven (Nuit) lay near each other.
But the god of air and of sunlight (Shu) raised the sky, and set it
as a vault over the earth. The fixed constellations which we know
form as it were an impression, like that of a seal on wax, of the
earth, and when the learned study the stars, they can find out the
unknown parts of our earth. Look at the constellations which you
know. In the north the Great Bear; in the south, at a certain season
of the year, the Hunter (Orion), with four stars at the corners and
three stars in the middle. These three we Hebrews call Jacob's
Staff, and through the uppermost of them passes the sky-gauge or
equator, which corresponds to the earth-gauge where the sources
of our Nile are said to be.
"You know also the constellation which we specially love--the River
(Nile). Look, how it flees from the Hunter (Orion), and makes as
many windings as the Nile here on earth. Therefore he who wishes to
learn the hidden secrets of earth must learn them from the sky. Our
wise men know only the lands which lie towards the east; but those
which lie in the north under the Great Bear are unknown to us, as
also are the lands towards the west.
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