96 History of Nature. [BooK II. 



together with him all the Lucani his Soldiers, of whom there 

 were many in his Army. That which came down in this 

 Rain resembled in some sort Sponges : and the Aruspices 

 gave Warning to take Heed of Wounds from above. But in 

 the Year that L. Paulus and C. Marcellus were Consuls, it 

 rained Wool about the Castle Carissa, near to which, a Year 

 after, T. Annius Milo was slain. At the Time that the same 

 Mito pleaded his own Cause at the Bar, there fell a Rain of 

 Tiles and Bricks, as is related in the Records of that Year. 



CHAPTER LVII. 



Of the Rustling of Armour, and the Sound of Trumpets heard 

 from Heaven. 



IN the Time of the Cimbrian Wars, we have been told 

 that Armour was heard to rustle, and the Trumpet to sound, 

 out of Heaven. And this happened very often, both before 

 and after those Wars. But in the third Consulship of 

 Marius, the Amerines and Tudertes saw Men in Arms in the 

 Sky 1 , rushing one against another, from the East and West ; 

 and those of the West were discomfited. That the very 

 Firmament itself should be on Fire is no Wonder, for often 

 it hath been seen when Clouds have caught any great deal 

 of Fire. 



CHAPTER LVIII. 



Of Stones falling from the Sky*. 



THE Greeks greatly celebrate Anaxagoras Clazomenius, 

 who, by the Learning that he had in Astronomy, foretold in 



1 This was probably the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights; a 

 phenomenon rarely seen so far to the South. It is, perhaps, the same 

 that is referred to by Josephus, in his narrative of the terrors sent by 

 God before the fatal siege of Jerusalem. The account of what was seen 

 in the county of Cumberland, immediately preceding the invasion of 

 England by the Pretender, will shew how nearly aerial appearances may 

 approach to realities. Wern. Club. 



2 For a long time the fall from the sky, of what are denominated 

 Meteorolites, was deemed too preposterous to be believed ; but since the 



