The Hyades represent the head of the imaginary bull, Aldebaran standing for the eye, while rows of stars running up toward Zeta (ζ) and Beta (β) figure the “golden horns.” The Pleiades, the “Atlantid Nymphs,” hang on the shoulder. They form a much more compact group than the Hyades, and possess no large star, their chief brilliant, Alcyone--Eta(η)--being only of the third magnitude. But the effect of their combination is very striking and beautiful. In looking at them one can never refrain from quoting Tennyson’s famous lines in which they are described as glittering “like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid.” The adjective silvery exactly describes them. If you happen to glance at the sky at a point many degrees away from the place where they shine, your eye will inevitably be drawn to them. They have greater attractive power than a single large star, and the effect of their intermingled rays is truly fascinating. With an opera-glass they look like the glimmering candles on a Christmas-tree. Their mythological history and the many strange traditions pertaining to them I have described elsewhere, and shall not repeat here; but it should be said that there is not in all the sky any object comparable with the Pleiades in influence over the human imagination. The fancy of Maedler that Alcyone was the central sun of the universe, and the inference, so popular at one time, that it might be the very seat of the Almighty, have vanished in the limbo of baseless traditions; but the mystic charm of the Pleiades has been increased by the photographic discovery that they are involved in a wonderful mass of tangled nebulæ. Their distance is unknown, but evidently very great, some having put it at 250 light-years, corresponding to about 1,450,000,000,000,000 miles! If this is correct, Alcyone may be really one of the most gigantic suns in the universe. They appear to be travelling together like a flock of birds. It is always an interesting question how many stars in the cluster can be seen with the naked eye. Many persons can detect only six, but better, or more trained, eyes see seven, or even nine. The telescope and photography reveal thousands thickly sprinkled over the space of sky that they occupy, or immediately around them. How many of these are actually connected with the group is unknown. One of the most persistent legends of antiquity is that of the “Lost Pleiad.” Says Miss Clerke, in her _System of the Stars_: