ON THE PERIODICITY OF THE AURORA BOREALIS. 15 



Milman 1 makes the following allusion to the aurora which appeared in the summer 

 of 167 B. C. : — 



" The doom of the city bad not been without its portent. Early in the year the heavens had been ablaze with what 

 appeared horsemen in cloth of gold, tilting at. each other, with the flash of swords and bucklers. The wild tumult in the 

 sky lasted for forty nights." 



Milman draws his description from this passage in Maccabees : — 



" And then it happened that through all the city, for the space almost of forty days, there were seen horsemen running 

 in the air, in cloth of gold, and armed with lances, like a band of soldiers, j And troops of horsemen in array, encounter- 

 ing and running one against another, with shaking of shields, and multitude of pikes, and drawing of swords, and casting 

 of darts, anil glittering of golden ornaments and harness of all sorts." 2 



Milman adds, in a note : — 



'■ In my younger days I described an Aurora Borealis, I had myself seen it, in lines which might seem to be, but were 

 not, taken from the book of Maccabees. 



" Forth springs an arch, 



O'erspanning with its crystal pathway pure 



The starry sky : as though for Gods to march, 



With show of heavenly warfare daunting earth, 



To that wild revel of the northern clouds : 



They now with broad and bannery light distinct 



Stream in their restless waverings to and fro, . . . 



Anon like slender lances bright start up, 



And cross and clash, with hurtle and with flash 



Tilting their airy tournament. 



Samor, Book III. p. 42." 



Milman also alludes to this passage in Humboldt's Cosmos: 3 



"Mit nicht geringer Wahrscheinlichkeit kann man vermuthen, dass das merkwiirdige von der Erde pyramidal aufstei- 

 gende Licht, welches man auf der Ilochebene von Mexico 1509, vierzig Nachte lang, am ostlichen Himmel beobachtete 

 und dessen Erwahnung ich in einem alt-aztekischen Manuscripte der Konigliche Pariser BibUothek, im Codex Telleriano- 

 Remensis, aufgefunden, das Thierkreislicht war." 



In the book of Job, 4 an early allusion is supposed to have been made to the aurora 

 borealis : 



" And now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds : but the wind passeth and cleanseth them. 

 Fair weather corneth out of the north : with God is terrible majesty." 



1 History of the Jews. Third Edition, I. p. 461. 2 Second of Maccabees. V. 2d and 3d vereet. 



8 Kosmos, I. 145. See also Plutarch's Lives, III. 124. Marius. * Job XXXVII. 21 and 22. 



