Note 11 — Chapter IX · AUTUMN AND WINTER
Reading edition
STARS
[11] Curiously enough, the Malagasy appear to have given names only to these two prominent clusters of stars. The Pleiades they call “Kòtokèli-miàdi-laona”—i.e. “Little boys fighting over the rice mortar”; while the three stars of Orion’s belt they call “Tèlo-no-ho-réfy”—i.e. “Three make a fathom.” They have no name for the first-magnitude stars, or for the planets, except for Venus, as a morning star—viz. “Fitàrikàndro”—i.e. “Leader of the day.”