ht; only--whereas now in
Egypt, Chaldaea, India, Persia, and China, only the upper portions of his
figure rise above the horizon, he then stood, the noblest save Orion of
all the constellations, with his feet (marked by the bright Alpha and
Beta still belonging to the constellation, and by the stars of the
Southern Cross which have been taken from it) upon the horizon itself.
In latitude twenty degrees or so north he may still be seen thus placed
when due south.

The Centaur was represented in old times as placing an offering upon the
altar, which was pictured, says Manilius, as bearing a fire of incense
represented by stars. This to a student of our modern charts seems
altogether perplexing. The Centaur carries the wolf on the end of his
spear; but instead of placing the wolf (not a very acceptable meat
offering, one would suppose) upon the altar, he is directing this animal
towards the base of the altar, whose top is downwards, the flames
represented there tending (naturally) downwards also. It is quite
certain the ancient observers did not imagine anything of this sort. As
I have said, Aratus tells us the celestial Centaur was placing an
offering _upon_ the altar, which was therefore upright, and Manilius
describes the altar as

Ferens thuris, stellis imitantibus, ignem,

so that the fire was where it should be, on the top of an upright altar,
where also on the sky itself were stars looking like the smoke from
incense fires. Now that was precisely the appearance presented by the
stars forming the constellation at the time I have indicated, some 2170
years B.C. Setting the altar upright above the southern horizon (that
is, inverting the absurd picture at present given of it) we see it just
where it should be placed to receive the Centaur's offering. A most
remarkable portion of the Milky Way is then seen to be directly above
the altar in such a way as to form a very good imitation of smoke
ascending from it. This part of the Milky Way is described by Sir J.
Herschel, who studied it carefully during his stay at the Cape of Good
Hope, as forming a complicated system of interlaced streaks and masses
which covers the tail of Scorpio (extending from the altar which lies
immediately south of the Scorpion's Tail). The Milky Way divides, in
fact, just above the altar as the constellation was seen 4000 years ago
above the southern horizon, one branch being that just described, the
other (like another stream of smoke) 'pas