bent handle. Why it is called the
Great Bear is not so easy to explain. The classical legend has it that
the nymph Calisto, having violated her vow, was changed by Diana into
a bear, which, after death, was immortalized in the sky by Zeus.
Another suggestion is that the earliest astronomers, the Chaldeans,
called these stars "the shining ones," and their word happened to be
very like the Greek arktos (a bear). Another explanation (I do not
know who is authority for either) is that vessels in olden days were
named for animals, etc. They bore at the prow the carved effigy of the
namesake, and if the Great Bear, for example, made several very happy
voyages by setting out when a certain constellation was in the
ascendant, that constellation might become known as the Great Bear's
constellation. Certainly, there is nothing in its shape to justify the
name. Very few of the constellations, indeed, are like the thing they
are {82} called after. Their names were usually given for some fanciful
association with the namesake, rather than for resemblance to it.

The Pole-star is really the most important of the stars in our sky; it
marks the north at all times; it alone is fixed in the heavens: all
the other stars seem to swing around it once in twenty-four hours. It
is in the end of the Little Bear's tail. But the Pole-star, or
Polaris, is not a very bright one, and it would be hard to identify
but for the help of the Dipper, or Pointers.

The outside (Alpha and Beta) of the Dipper points nearly to Polaris,
at a distance equal to three and one half times the space that
separates these two stars of the Dipper's outer side.

Various Indians call the Pole-star the "Home Star," and "The Star that
Never Moves," and the Dipper they call the "Broken Back."

The last star but one in the Dipper, away from the pole--that is, the
star at the bend of the handle,--is known to astronomers as Mizar, one
of the Horses; Just above it, and tucked close in, is a smaller star
known to astronomers as Alcor, or the Rider. The Indians call these
two the "Old Squaw and the Pappoose on Her Back." In the old world,
from very ancient times, these have been used as tests of eyesight. To
be able to see Alcor with the naked eye means that one has excellent
eyesight. So also on the plains, the old folks would ask the children
at night, "Can you see the pappoose on the old squaw's back?" And when
the youngster saw it, and proved that he did by a right descript