ench appeared at Amsterdam in 1731.

CANIS MAJOR ("Great Dog"), in astronomy, a constellation placed south of
the Zodiac, just below and behind the heels of Orion. _Canis minor_, the
"little dog," is another constellation, also following Orion and
separated from Canis major by the Milky Way. Both these constellations,
or at least their principal stars, Sirius in the Great Dog and Procyon
in the Little Dog, were named in very remote times, being referred to as
the "dogs of Orion" or in equivalent terms. Sirius is the brightest star
in the heavens; and the name is connected with the adjectives [Greek:
seirhos] and [Greek: sehirios], scorching. It may possibly be related to
the Arabic _Siraj_, thus meaning the "glittering one." Hommel has shown
that Sirius and Procyon were "the two _Si'ray_" or glitterers. It is
doubtful whether Sirius is referred to in the Old Testament. By some it
has been identified with the Hebrew _mazzaroth_, the _Lucifer_ of the
Vulgate; by others with _mazzaloth_, the _duodecim signa_ of the
Vulgate; while Professor M.A. Stern identifies it with the Hebrew
_kimah_, which is rendered variously in the Vulgate as Arcturus, Hyades
and Pleiades.[1] The inhabitants of the Euphrates valley included both
constellations in their stellar system; but considerable difficulty is
encountered in the allocation of the Babylonian names to the dominant
stars. The name _kak-ban_, which occurs on many tablets, has been
determined by Epping and Strassmaier, and also by Jensen and Hommel, as
equivalent to Sirius; etymologically this word means "dog-star" (or,
according to R. Brown, _Primitive Constellations_, "bow-star"). On the
other hand, _Kaksidi_ or _Kak-si-sa_, meaning the "leader," has been
identified by Sayce and others with Sirius, while Hommel regards it as
Procyon. The question is mainly philological, and the arguments seem
inconclusive. We may notice, however, that connexions were made between
Kaksidi and the weather, which have strong affinities with the ideas
expressed at a later date by the Greeks. For example, its appearance in
the morning with the sun heralded the "north winds," the [Greek: boreai
etaesiai] or _aquilones etesiae_, the strong and dangerous
north-westerly winds of Greece which blow for forty days from the rising
of the star; again, when Sirius appeared misty the "locusts devour."
Sirius also appears in the cosmogony of Zoroaster, for Plutarch records
that Ormuzd appointed this star to