The Indians of South America have observed the stars in much greater detail. The descriptions of von den Steinen are well known, in particular for the Bakairi of Central Brazil. Orion is a large frame on which manioc is dried, the larger stars are the tops of posts, Sirius is the end of a great cross-beam supporting the frame from the side. The Pleiades are a heap of grains of meal that have fallen out at the side: a larger mass, ‘the father of the heap’, is Aldebaran. Capella is a little capsule such as the Bakairi wear in their ears, two other stars of Auriga are the ear-rings of the Kayabi, the feathers of which are stuck backwards. One star, probably Procyon, is an ear-piercer, or more properly the hole bored in the ear. Castor and Pollux are the holes of a great flute. Canopus has no name. The Southern Cross is a bird-snare on a twig, and the two large stars of the Centaur represent two canes belonging to it. In the snare a _mutum cavallo_ (_crax_) was taken, and this could be seen in a dark patch of the Milky Way close beside. A Sokko heron with a little basket full of fish corresponds approximately to the stars of Pisces and Argo. The Scorpion is a drag-net for children, the Milky Way is a huge drum-stick, and the holes in it (the dark spots) are observed and explained by stories. The Paressi have a name for the Southern Cross, above which they see an ostrich whose figure is to be recognised in a dark spot of the Milky Way: other animals are also found in the sky. To the Bororo the Southern Cross represents the toes of a great ostrich, the Centaur a leg belonging to them, Orion is a Jabuti turtle and in the parts verging on to Sirius a cayman, the Pleiades are the bunches of blossom on the angico tree. The name of Venus was not translatable[501]. The Karaya of Central Brazil knew many constellations, and drew some of them in our informant’s sketch-book. The Southern Cross, for example, is a ray (the fish), the two stars of the Centaur above it represent an ostrich, upon which a jaguar, Scorpio, is leaping[502]. Of the natives of Brazil in general it is stated that there is hardly a single important constellation which does not explain to them some event, or represent some idea in connexion with things that happen upon the earth, though they certainly have no heroes to set in them. Myths of Orion, of the Pleiades, and of Canopus were related[503]. E. Nordenskiöld has repeatedly visited the border districts between the Argentine, Bolivia, and Brazil. Of the Chané and Chiriguano Indians he says that they do not give names to many constellations, but they know them very well. The part of the Milky Way lying nearest to the Southern Cross is called the Ostrich Way, the Southern Cross together with a few neighbouring stars is the head of the ostrich, and the two largest stars of the Centaur are its collar. Orion with his sword is called ‘Birds-meet-each-other’, another constellation