Crux stars as a fish. In Mapudungun, the language of Patagonian Mapuches, the name of the Southern Cross is "Melipal", which means "four stars". In Quechua, the language of the Inca civilization, Crux is known as "Chakana", which means literally "stair" ("chaka", bridge, link; "hanan", high, above), but carries a deep symbolism within Quechua mysticism. Acrux and Mimosa make up one foot of the Great Rhea, a constellation encompassing Centaurus and Circinus along with the two bright stars. The Great Rhea was a constellation of the Bororo of Brazil. The Mocoví people of Argentina also saw a rhea including the stars
Crux in Chinese astronomy Crux in Chinese astronomy The modern constellation Crux is not included in the Three Enclosures and Twenty-Eight Mansions system of traditional Chinese uranography because its stars are too far south for observers in China to know about them prior to the introduction of Western star charts. Based on the work of Xu Guangqi and the German Jesuit missionary Johann Adam Schall von Bell in the late Ming Dynasty, this constellation has been classified as one of the 23 Southern Asterisms (近南極星區, "Jìnnánjíxīngōu") under the name Cross (十字架, "Shízìjià"). Possibly Acrux (Alpha Crucis), Mimosa (Beta Crucis) and Gacrux (Gamma Crucis) are