64 History of Nature. [BooK II. 



many are seen together; a Thing that no Man but he hath 

 known, so far as I can learn. They signify boisterous Winds, 

 and very hot Weather. They are seen also in Winter, and 

 about the South Pole : but in that Place without any Beams. 

 A terrible one likewise was seen by the People in Ethiopia 

 and Egypt, which the King who reigned in that Age, named 

 Typhon. It resembled Fire, and was twisted like a Wreath, 

 hideous to the Sight ; and not to be counted a Star, but truly 

 a Ball of Fire. Sometimes the Planets and other Stars are 

 spread over with Hairs ; but a Comet J is never seen in the 

 West Part of the Heaven. 



A fearful Star, for the most Part, this Comet is, and not 

 easily expiated 2 : as it appeared by the late civil Troubles 

 when Octavius was Consul : as also a second Time by the 

 War of Pompey and Ccesar. And in our Days about the 

 Time that Claudius Ccesar was poisoned, and left the Empire 

 to Domitius Nero ; in the Time of whose Reign there was 

 another almost continually seen, and always terrible. It is 

 thought to be material for Presage, to observe into what 

 Quarters it shooteth, or what Star's Power and Influence it 

 receiveth : also what Similitudes it resernbleth, and in what 

 Parts it first shineth out. For if it be like unto Flutes 

 ( Tibice}, it portendeth somewhat to Musicians : if it appear 

 in the obscene Organs of the Signs, it threatens filthy Per- 



concluded from Pliny's incredulity. Modern theory would refer this 

 abundance of shooting stars to a very limited period of the month of No- 

 vember ; but on the only occasion in which the Editor was an observer of 

 a very remarkable quantity, the observation was made on the second or 

 third day of October ; when, in a ride of more than two hours, the sky 

 was never free from them ; although no more than three were visible at 

 any one time. Wern. Club. 



1 Dalechamp remarks, that in this observation Pliny has mistaken 

 the meaning of Aristotle, whom he is copying. The latter says, that a 

 comet disappears, or is dissipated, before it sinks so low as the horizon. 

 Wern. Club. 



2 This expiation was the business of the priests ; and in the affair of a 

 comet could only be judged to have taken effect when the awful manifest- 

 ation had disappeared: and consequently not until after a considerable 

 period. Wern. Club. 



