222 COSMOS. 



ing, they were more easily broken during the first day after 

 the fall than subsequently. I have intentionally given more 

 time to this phenomenon, in order to be able to compare it 

 with another of the 13th of September, 1768. About half 

 past four o'clock in the afternoon of the above-mentioned day, 

 a dark cloud was seen near the village of Luce (Dep. d'Eure 

 et Loire), four miles westward of Chartres, in which a noise 

 was heard like a cannon shot, and at the same time a hissing 

 was perceived in the air, caused by the fall of a black stone 

 moving in a curve. The stone, which had penetrated into 

 the Earth, weighed V^lbs., and was so hot that it could not 

 be touched. It was very imperfectly analyzed by Lavoisier/ 

 Fougeroux, and Cadet. No phenomena of light were per- 

 ceived throughout the whole occurrence. 



As soon as the observation of periodic falls of shooting stars 

 was commenced, and their appearance on certain nights ex- 

 pected, it was remarked that the frequency of the meteors in- 

 creased with the length of time from midnight, and that the 

 greatest number fell between two and five in the morning. 

 Already, on the occasion of the great fall of meteors at Cu- 

 mana in the night of the llth and 12th of November, 1799, 



ly, the burning gold repulsed these ; but when the youngest went up 

 the third, it became extinguished, and lie carried the things home with 

 him; and that the elder brothers, in consequence of this giving way, 

 surrendered the whole authority to the youngest. 6. From Lipoxais, 

 they say, are descended those Scythians who are called Auchatae; from 

 the second, Apoxais, those who are called Catiari and Traspies ; and 

 from the youngest of them, the royal race, who are called Paralatse 

 But all have the name of Scoloti, from the surname of their king; but 

 the Grecians call them Scythians. 7. The Scythians say that such was 

 their origin ; and they reckon the whole number of years from their 

 first beginning, from King Targitaus to the time that Darius crossed over 

 against them, to be not more than a thousand years, but just that num- 

 ber. This sacred gold the kings watch with the greatest care, and an- 

 nually approach it with magnificent sacrifices to render it propitious. 

 If he who has the sacred gold happens to fall asleep in the open air on 

 the festival, the Scythians say he can not survive the year, and on this 

 account they give him as much land as he can ride round on horseback 

 in one day. The country being very extensive, Colaxais established 

 three of the kingdoms for his sons, and made that one the largest in 

 which the gold is kept. The parts beyond the north of the inhabited 

 districts the Scythians say can neither be seen nor passed through, by 

 reason of the feathers shed there ; for that the earth and aii^re full of 

 feathers, and that it is these which intercept the view." Herodotus, iv., 

 5 and 7 (translation, Bonn's Classical Library, p. 238). But is the myth 

 of sacred gold merely an ethnographical myth an allusion to three 

 kings' sons, the founders of three^aces of Scythians? an allusion to the 

 prominent position which the race of the youngest son, the Paralatae, 

 attained? (Brandstatter, Scythica, de aurea Caterva, 1837, p. 69 and 81.) 



