Isis Dreaming Of The Sky Above Quiz

Answer: By the Great Spirit Ancestors who slept under the Earth

"Oh", said Robin, "I heard that the Aborigines had beliefs and ideas unique to their own tribes?"

"True" replied Shaggster, "but all believe in Dreamtime and their Great Spiritual Ancestors"

Dreamtime is also known as the "time before time". The Earth was dark and empty until the Great Spirit Ancestors awoke, pushed their way through the Earth and created the Sun, the moon, stars, air, fire and water. On their travels they also created the landscape, people and animals. Finally, weary of their journey, the Ancestors laid down and once again sank below the Earth. However, they left behind their spirits in certain trees and rocks, which Aborigines treat as sacred places.

One legend that seeks to explain the creation of the Sun tells of a young girl who left her tribe after her people denied her the man she loved. She ran to a barren place and had no food, water or a safe place to sleep. Close to death, her Ancestor spirits lifted her away to the sky and she awoke to see she now had plenty of food and water. Looking down on her people she realised how cold they were during the day when they were too busy to sit by a fire. From then on she lit a fire throughout the day and extinguished it in the evening when the people below were able to sit beside their own fires

Isis wags her tail. She very much approves of Dreamtime and she settles down to have a little of her own dream time!

Answer: Drops of Jupiter

"Oh", says Stress. "It's called "Drops of Jupiter" by "Train". They're a Californian rock band and the song was released in 2001. The lead singer, Pat Monahan has always claimed the opening lines came to him while asleep, and inspired by his mother who had recently died. "Now that she's back in the atmosphere with drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey, hey.""

"So what do you think Isis?", asks Scouser?
"Zzzzz" replies Isis.

Answer: delight - warning

Apparently, this was originally a sailors warning. Does this really help to predict the weather? It can in the U.K, and any place where most of the weather/wind comes mostly from the west.

"Why?", asks Dolly Daydream.

Minxy explains;

At dawn and dusk, when the sun is low in the sky, sunlight travels through more atmosphere than at other times. The blue end of the spectrum is less visible but the red/orange end of the spectrum more prominent and reflects of the clouds causing the sky to look red.

So, as the sun sets in the west and rises in the east, if your weather comes from the west and you see red clouds in the morning this must mean the clouds are coming towards you and a there could be a chance of bad weather. If you see the red light reflected off the clouds at night, this means the clouds have already passed by in the east, giving a chance of good weather the next day.

Isis had had one doggy ear open during Minxy's explanation and thought humans would be better of predicting the weather the way dogs did - by sniffing the air!

Answer: The Asteroid in Antoine De Saint-Exupery's novel "The Little Prince".

The Little Prince's asteroid is so small that all you have to do to see a new sunset, is to move forward a few steps. The Little Prince once saw forty-four sunsets in one day.

"Hmm", thinks Isis, "I often get fed around sunset. Sounds like a nice place to live."

Answer: Counting stars is like trying to count blades of grass all over the world , there is no exact answer.

Oddly enough while Isis is thinking this, so is Playmate, and asks the others if they can help, and all agree that there is no definitive answer.

"Well", says Stealth, "if the Universe is never ending there could be a infinite number of stars.

"Also", says Playmate, "it can take millions of years for the light of a star to reach us. The star might not exist anymore. However, I guess new ones come along too that we haven't seen yet!"

"Nope", says Ohstress, "Only one, George Clooney."

In 2003 Australian astronomers tried to answer this question by using the most powerful telescopes to look at ten thousand galaxy's and estimated that there was at least seventy sextillion stars ( 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000).

However it's only a guess.

Answer: M*A*S*H

Isis (and her doggy mates) start barking at the sky.

"Hush puppies", says Missette, "tell me why helicopters remind you of "M*A*S*H?"

("Hush puppies?", thinks Isis, "I like chewing shoes.")

"Because", begins Hottlipps", the sky was often full of helicopters bringing the wounded. "M*A*S*H" stands for "Mobile Army Surgical Hospital" and the T.V show was set during the Korean war."

"Did you know that the character of Margaret "Hotlips" Houlihan was based on a real head nurse in the Korean war, known as "Hotlips" Hammerly?", finished Hottlipps.

Answer: Wilt Chamberlain

Wilt Chamberlain was perhaps the best individual player of his era. At different points in his career he had led the league in points scored, rebounds, and assists.

These career statistics include one year in which he averaged an incredible 50 points per game, including one single game in which he scored 100 points.

Isis thinks that Stealth finds odd things to ponder and to become blue about. "He should try living a dog's life" she thinks while stretching out for another dog nap.

Answer: Iroquois

The Iroquois people of the North-eastern America believed in Sky People who lived on an island in the sky. Their lives were happy and no one died and no one was born. Then the Sky Woman discovered she was carrying twins and told her husband. He was furious and tore up the tree which was the only source of light on the island.

The Sky Woman looked through the hole where the tree had stood and saw the water covering the Earth. Her husband pushed her and she started to fall towards the waters below.

As the Earth entirely covered with water, only water animals existed. Two birds saw her falling and carried her down to the water animals. The animals wanted to help and dived down to the bottom of the sea to collect mud. Finally 'Little Toad' came up with a mouth full of mud which was spread across the back of 'Big Turtle'.

The mud grew until it became the size of North America. It was then that the Sky Woman using dust from the dried mud created the stars, moon and sun.
"I read a book once", says Immiasmommy, "which said many creation myths involved giant turtles.India and Japan for example."

"Hmm!", thinks Isis. "This shows a lack of imagination to me, as obviously the Earth and sky was created on a dog's back. Fairly sure my fleas believe that."

Answer: Aurora Borealis

Caused by interaction between the solar wind and the magnetic field of the Earth the Aurora Borealis (The Northern Polar Lights) creates a wonderful luminous, mostly green and red, astral light show.

"In Newfoundland and Labrador we call them 'The Merry Dancers'" says Stress, "and an extra bright light is meant to herald good weather. It's also been said if you whistle a tune the lights will dance to it".

"The native American Cree called the lights "Dance of the Spirits",says Missette.

"Aurora is named after the Roman goddess of dawn." adds Playmate.

"Further" adds Stealth "I believe Borealis is in Greek mythology the name for the god of north wind".

The southern polar lights (Aurora Australis) are of course seen in the Southern hemisphere.

Isis has a little think on the swirling lights she could see if she went home with Stress but decides it's far too near breakfast time.

Answer: Canis Major

The Canis Major (Greater dog) constellation is tightly packed full of blue and white stars and several white dwarfs, while Canis Minor is relatively empty, but contains Procyan, the 8th brightest star in our sky. Sirius, from the Greek word meaning 'scorching', burns twice as bright as any other star in our night sky and is commonly known as "the dog star".

Sirius was worshiped by the Ancient Egyptians as the Nile star, or as the soul of the Goddess Isis.

"Did you hear that Isis girl"? said Alacarte. Yes, Isis has both ears cocked and wagging her tail!

The yearly appearance of Sirius coincided with the rising and flooding of the river Nile, which the Egyptians were dependent on for their crops.

Sirius also is the origin of the expression "Dog days of summer."

Isis is very impressed by all this, but wonders how to get breakfast since all her human friends are now fast asleep. An Egyptian goddess, a star in the sky, surely she can use a tin opener? No, Isis decides to wake her dad, Alacarte, up with a tender nudge from her dewy nose and a delicate lick. When he opens his eyes, she gives him her very best brown 'liquid' eye look and knows breakfast will be on its way.