CANIS MINOR.—This is a small constellation, containing only fourteen stars, of which two are of great brilliancy. Procyon, a star of the first magnitude, is situated twenty-three degrees south of Pollux, and twenty-six degrees east of Betelguese, and forms with them a large right-angled triangle. Procyon comes to the meridian the 24th of February. According to Greek mythology, this is one of Orion's hounds. The Egyptians, however, claim its origin from their god Anubis, whom they worshipped under the form of a dog's head. Probably the Egyptians were the inventors of the idea, as the constellation rises a little before Sirius, which, at a particular season, they always dreaded; therefore they represented it as a watchful creature, that warned them of the approach of danger. Moderns have asserted it to be one of Actæon's hounds, that devoured their master after he had been transformed into a stag by Diana, to prevent his betraying her. This is evidently an error, as there is no proof to sustain it.
CANIS MAJOR.—This interesting constellation is situated south-east of Orion, and is universally known by the brilliancy of its principal star, Sirius, which is the largest and brightest in the heavens. In our hemisphere, during the winter months, it glows with a lustre unequalled by any other star in the firmament. It is also the nearest star to the earth, yet the distance between Sirius and us is so great that sound, travelling thirteen miles a minute, would be three millions of years in traversing the mighty space. And a ray of light, which moves at the rate of 200,000 miles per second, would be three years and eighty-two days in passing through the vast space that lies between Sirius and the earth. If the nearest star to the earth gives such results, what must those give situated a thousand times as far beyond, where worlds, surrounded by their satellites, roll in their orbits away in the immensity of space, each revolving around its own sun, while, millions of miles beyond, stars, like our own, greet their visual organs, and inspire as great an interest to the inhabitants of that world as those do to us which we discover by the aid of our powerful telescopes?
The Thebans determine the length of the year by Sirius, and the Egyptians dreaded its approach, as, at its rising, commenced the inundation of the Nile, teeming with malaria and death.
"Parched was the grass, and blighted was the corn,
Nor 'scape the beasts; for Sirius, from on high,
With pestilential heat infects the sky."
The Romans, also, were accustomed yearly to propitiate Sirius by the sacrifice of a dog.
