Mother Camels

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The protecting Mother Camels (Arabic al'awa'id العوائذ) is the name given by ancient Arabic nomadic tribes to an asterism in the constellation of Draco. Instead of the head of a dragon, the asterism was interpreted as a ring of mother camels (formed by γ Dra, ξ Dra, ν Dra and β Dra) surrounding a baby camel (the faint star in the middle), with another mother camel (μ Dra) running to join them. The camels were seen to be protecting the baby from a line of charging hyenas (ι Dra, θ Dra, η Dra, and ζ Dra).

The Arabs did not see the constellation Draco as it is now, but had three sectors in this constellation. The main sector was the protecting mother camels. The second part is the star μ Dra which was called the dancer الراقص and the other part is the "wolf's nails" or "fingerprint" (أظفار الذئب).

References

"Draco the Dragon" by Gerardus D. Bouw, PhD

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