1. URSA MINOR (The Little Bear).
The Lesser Sheepfold.
Here we come to another grievous mistake, or ignorant perversion of primitive truth, as shown in the ancient names of these two constellations.
It is sufficient to point to the fact that no Bear is found in any Chaldean, Egyptian, Persian, or Indian Zodiacs, and that no bear was ever seen with such a tail! No one who had ever seen a bear would have called attention to a tail, such as no bear ever had, by placing in its very tip the most important, wondrous, and mysterious Polar Star, the central star of the heavens, round which all others revolve. The patriarchal astronomers, we may be sure, committed no such folly as this.
The primitive truth that there were two, or a pair of constellations is preserved; and that of these two, one is larger, and the other smaller. But what were they? We have the clue to the answer in the name of the brightest star of the larger constellation, which is called Dubheh. Now Dubheh means a herd of animals. In Arabic, Dubah means cattle. In Hebrew, דֹּבֶר, Dōhver, is a fold; and hence in Chaldee it meant wealth. The Hebrew דֹּבֶא, Dōhveh, means rest or security; and certainly there is not much of either to be found or enjoyed with bears! The word occurs in Deut. xxxiii. 25: “As thy days so shall thy strength be.” The Revised Version gives in the margin, “So shall thy rest or security be.” This accords with what we have already seen under “Cancer”: “Couching down between the sheepfolds,[71] he saw a resting-place that it was good.”
Here are the two Sheepfolds, then; the Greater fold, and Lesser; and here is the rest and security which the flocks will find therein.
But in Hebrew there is a word very similar in sound, though not in spelling—דֹּב or דּוֹב, dōhv, which means a bear! So we find in Arabic dub; Persian, deeb and dob. We can see, therefore, how the Hebrew Dōhver, a fold, and Dōhv, a bear, were confused; and how the Arabic Dubah, cattle, might easily have been mistaken by the Greeks, and understood as a bear.
Plate 36: URSA MINOR
The constellation, which we must therefore call the lesser sheepfold, contains 24 stars, viz., one of the 2nd magnitude, two of the 3rd, four of the 4th, etc.