It was
long, indeed, before they found out the kind of path traveled _really_
by the planets. In fact, they supposed our earth to be fixed; and if
our earth were fixed, the paths of the planets about her as a center
would be twisted and tangled in the most perplexing way. So that folks
in those old times, seeing the planets making all manner of loops and
twistings round the sky, and supposing they made corresponding loops
and twistings in traveling round the earth, thought the planets were
living creatures, going round the earth to watch it and rule over it,
each according to his own fashion. So they worshiped the planets as
gods, counting seven of them, including the sun and moon. Some they
thought good to men, others evil. The two planets now twisting their
way along the southern skies were two of the evil sort, viz.: Mars,
called the Lesser Infortune, and Saturn, called the Greater Infortune.
In the old system of star-worship, Mars ruled over Tuesday, and Saturn
over Saturday,--the Sabbath of olden times,--a day which the Chaldean
and Egyptian astrologers regarded as the most unlucky in the whole
week.
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