by water," of whom St. Peter speaks. Six
Pleiades only are usually seen by the naked eye; traditionally seven
were seen; but the Rabbis assumed that two, not one, were lost.

Perhaps we may trace a reference to this supposed association of
_K[=i]mah_ with the Flood in the passage from Amos already quoted:--

"Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, . . . that
calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon
the face of the earth: the Lord is His name."

Many ancient nations have set apart days in the late autumn in honour of
the dead, no doubt because the year was then considered as dead. This
season being marked by the acronical rising of the Pleiades, that group
has become associated with such observances. There is, however, no
reference to any custom of this kind in Scripture.

What is the meaning of the inquiry addressed to Job by the Almighty?

"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?"

What was the meaning which it possessed in the thought of the writer of
the book? What was the meaning which we should now put on such an
inquiry, looking at the constellations from the standpoint which the
researches of modern astronomy have given us?

The first meaning of the text would appear to be connected with the
apparent movement of the sun amongst the stars in the course of the
year. We cannot see the stars by daylight, or see directly where the sun
is situated with respect to them; but, in very early times, men learnt
to associate the seasons of the year with the stars which were last seen
in the morning, above the place where the sun was about to rise; in the
technical term once in use, with the heliacal risings of stars. When the
constellations were first designed, the Pleiades rose heliacally at the
beginning of April, and were the sign of the return of spring. Thus
Aratus, in his constellation poem writes--

"Men mark them (_i. e._ the Pleiades) rising with the solar ray,
The harbinger of summer's brighter day."

They heralded, therefore, the revival of nature from her winter sleep,
the time of which the kingly poet sang so alluringly--

"For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs,
And the vines are in blossom,
They gi