| Show superstition of dog days authorities differ as to when this most unpleasant part of summer really puts in its annual appearance dog days begin according to the tra dillons of boyhood in certain parts ot the united states when the green scum algae begins to appear on the surface of the lakes and rivers then it is supposed to be unsafe to go in swimming and it is then that ac cording to the tradition of many adults as well as of boys dogs most frequent ly go mad all nations and races of civilization apparently have had a period during the summer known as dog days when many maladies were supposed to be common but the mad ness of dogs hydrophobia was never associated with dog days by the an cientos dog days are a rather indefinite per iod according to this green scum rule but there Is a disagreement of author aties as to when dog days really do begin and end according to the cen tury dictionary dog days are part of the year about the time of the helia cal rising of the dog star S alus that is when the dog star rises in con junction with the sun or as nearly in conjunction as may be observed var lous dates from july 3 to aug 15 have ben assigned for the beginning of dog days and they are given various durations of from thirty to fifty days it seems to have been from the hel bacal rising of sinus that the ancients most commonly reckoned the dog days thus at the present time dog days would begin july 3 and will end aug 11 sirius is the brightest star in the heavens and it was easy to as the mutual heat of the bright est star and of the sun with the hot test and most unkindly period of the year hippocrates declared the dog days to be the most unhealthy part ot the summer dog days are continually dropping farther back into the calendar now they are twelve days behind the sched ule to which they held in the period of the pharaohs in time birlus may rise in the dead of winter the egypt fians maintained that the first indica tion of the rise of the nile took place on the morning of the longest day when as they said the sun and S rius rose together they ed the rise of the river entirely to the great heat generated by this star in conjunction with the sun birlus is situated in the mouth of the constellate on cams major the great dog the latin name of dog dais was dies cancu laris and from this comes the term year which was known among the egypt fians and ethiopians it was compit ed from one heliacal rising of birlus to the next and consisted ordinarily of das every fourth year having days |
