CHAPTER X
ALONG THE MILKY WAY
The Milky Way
One of the loveliest, and most amazing, phenomena of the heavens is the Milky Way. In olden times, imagination ran riot as to just what this luminous band of light could be. It was almost as great a mystery as the tides, which were called the "grave of curiosity."
Fully equal to solving the problem to their own satisfaction, even as they did the motion of the stars, the ancient people considered that here, perhaps, was a crack or seam where the two halves of heaven were imperfectly joined thus giving to earth a glimpse of the glory beyond the darkness.
And through the chinks admit an upper Flame,
Or whether here the heaven's two Halves are joyn'd,
But oddly clos'd, still leave a Seam behind."
—Manilius.
In ancient Judea it was imagined as a Long Bandage wrapped around the heavens.
Others thought that the Milky Way was not an imperfection in the floor of heaven but a pathway left open for the angels. A French legend has it the glimmering of lights held by angels to guide mortals on their way to heaven. Some of the tribes of American Indians have a legend somewhat like the French legend for they, too, thought that it was a road on which souls journeyed to their "happy hunting ground." The large stars, on either side of
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