When the stars indicate this or that event, the primitive mind, as so often happens, is unable to distinguish between accompanying phenomena and causal connexion; it follows that the stars are regarded as authors of the events accompanying their appearance, when these take place without the interference of men. So in ancient Greece the expressions (a certain star) ‘indicates’ (σημαίνει) or ‘makes’ (ποιεῖ) certain weather were not kept apart, and the stars were regarded as causes of the atmospheric phenomena[610]. A similar process of reasoning is not seldom found among primitive peoples, and a few instances have already been given, such as the warming-incantation of the Bushmen against Canopus and Sirius, the name given to the Pleiades among the Bakongo (‘the Caretakers-who-guard-the-rain’), and the belief that the rain comes from them, the myth of the Euahlayi tribe that the Pleiades let ice fall down on to the earth in winter and cause thunderstorms, in other words send the rain, and the belief of the Marshall Islanders that the various positions of certain stars cause storms or good winds[611]. The same idea is very clearly seen in the account of the Hottentots given by a missionary of the 17th century[612]. At the return of the Pleiades the natives celebrate an anniversary: as soon as the stars appear above the eastern horizon the mothers lift their little ones in their arms, run up to some eminence, and shew to them these friendly stars, and teach them to stretch out their hands towards them. The people of the kraal assemble to dance and sing according to the old custom of their ancestors. The chorus is always: “O Tiqua, our father above our heads, give rain to us that the fruits (bulbs etc.), _uientjes_, may ripen and that we may have plenty of food: send us a good year!” The natives of Australia (perhaps of Victoria), according to an old account, worship the heavenly bodies and think that natural causes are governed by certain constellations. They have names for these, and sing and dance to win the favour of the Pleiades, which are worshipped by one group as the giver of rain; should the rain be deferred, curses instead of blessings are bestowed on them[613]. The Euahlayi tribe thinks that the Pleiades bring frost and winter thunderstorms, and that the Milky Way by its change of position brings rain[614]. An old native, chief of the Gingi tribe, when the rain would not stop, turned to the souls of his dead friends in the Milky Way with certain charms, until they made the rain cease. The Milky Way is regarded as a stream with fertile banks[615].