During the night our young friend had a disturbed rest. The constellations kept circling round him; while lions, bulls, fish and crabs were mingled, in strange confusion. They glared at him with their hollow eyes till the boy was quite frightened, and cried out in his sleep.
The morning sun awoke the boy, and put to flight the stars. When sweet evening came the twinkling lights stole forth again, and the astronomical dialogue was renewed by James.
“Please, father, I want to know the various constellations.
We will class them, my son, into North Polar, South Polar, and Equatorial.
The North Polar star, at the end of the Little Bear’s tail, is a capital guide for the north pole; but I don’t see any Little Bear southward, walking round his tail-tip, like a horse tethered in a paddock, so that I may discover the south pole.
No, we have not a South Polar star, and no bright stars at all near the south pole of the heavens.
Let us have a little more about the Zodiac first, father. I know the twelve signs are constellations over the tropics; but I don’t know why you call them the Zodiac.
Zodiac is from a Greek word, meaning a small figure of an animal, as they are nearly all animal figures.
How many northern and southern constellations are there?
In the ancient celestial atlases we find twenty-one northern and fifteen southern, besides the Zodiac; then more were added of new ones named or old ones subdivided, till we have, including the Zodiac, sixty-two northern and fifty-five southern constellations.