To the naked eye

the twin-star Alpha-beta Centauri seems single.
But to the Australian Boorong people
Alpha and Beta Centauri
are two fearsome and rampaging brothers.

"There is an indigenous tribe in Africa
that tells of life coming from the second star
in Alpha Centauri, the one no-one can see
without a high-powered observatory telescope.
Come to think of it, the Greeks, the original Australians,
and the Plains Indians [of North America] 
all lived continents apart
and all, independently, looked at the same septuple knot
of the Pleiades and believed them to be
seven young girls running away from something
[or someone] that threatened to hurt them."

- Jodi Picoult: My Sister's Keeper.