It is amazing what you can find on Wikipedia ...
It would not help Troy's case, but it is interesting to note that in the
Wikipedia article on Crux, that in
Mapundungun, the language of
Patagonian
Mapuches, the name for Crux is
Melipal which means
"four stars". A quick check of online Mapundugun dictionaries confirms
that indeed the word for the number four is
Meli.
As a side note, the four main VLT telescopes have Mapudungun names,
one of which is Melipal. Graphic here -
http://www.eso.org/public/archives/i...screen/vlt.jpg
Discussion of VLT names here -
http://www.eso.org/public/teles-inst...vlt-names.html
So it seems the Mapuches and New Zealanders have one thing in common,
which is that their idea of the Southern Cross only has four stars.
Wikipedia is a wonderful resource. Here is an article on cataract surgery -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataract_surgery