The famous Leonid meteors of 1833 dropped down so fast and thick that it seemed that all the stars in the heavens were falling down on the earth. This unique spectacle occurred again in 1866, and records show that, for a thousand years back, at intervals of every 33 years, we have been visited by such a "star shower." The first disappointment came in 1899, just as the general public, probably for the first time, was looking forward to it with a great deal of pleasurable anticipation. Will we again be disappointed in 1932? Although the earth passes across the pathway of these meteors every year, it is believed that along a certain section of the pathway the meteors are strung in thick profusion. It is through such a portion, literally studded with the fragments, that the earth rolls every 33 years, although it is not known for a certainty why, after all these years, we failed to see a display in 1899. A small "dark" constellation called Cancer, the Crab, lies just in front of Leo, the Lion. Although this constellation has been pointed out since very ancient times, and holds an important position in the zodiac, it does not contain a single conspicuous star and could scarcely be located in the sky, were it not for a faintly shining spot of light about the size of the Pleiades. This spot of light is a coarse cluster of 7th and 8th magnitude stars, resolvable by an opera-glass and easily located by a little star on either side. In the mythology of Greece, this constellation represents the gigantic sea-crab which Juno sent to bite the toes of Hercules when he was struggling in the marshes with the hundred-headed hydra. Naturally, Hercules stamped his foot down on the petty annoyance, which so offended Juno that she set the creature among the stars. It is the "misty spot," however, that has always attracted the eyes of men. The Chaldeans thought that the dim light came from a hole in the floor of heaven, and that it could be no other than the "gate of men" through which souls descended into human bodies. It has also been regarded as the Manger in which Christ was born and the stars on either side were called Aselli, or Little Asses. [Figure 51] The "Manger" is now known to hold 363 telescopic stars, and is historically interesting because it afforded one of the earliest telescopic proofs that there were hosts of stars in the heavens besides those visible to the unaided eye. Galileo, who first resolved its light into stars, was able to count forty small stars in this spot, and his telescope was no better than the field-glass of today, if we may indeed make such a comparison.