350 Star-Showers of Former Times. 
This at first view appears to be a very clear case, but its re- 
semblance to an instance mentioned in the Catalogue of Bolides, 
&c. observed in China, (Abel-Rémusat, Jour. de Phys. 1819,) 
which reads thus—*“ 687 ans avant J. C. * * les étoiles ne parois- 
soient pas, * * il tomba une étoile en forme de pluie,”’—induces 
the suspicion that the Chinese annalist may mean to state only 
the appearance of a single meteor which exploded into fragments. 
See note under No. (6. 
' (3.) A.D. 7. “In the thirty sixth year of his reign, [i. e. of 
Synin who began to reign in the year of Synmu 632, before 
Christ 29 years,] it rain’d Stars from Heaven, in Japan.” —Hist. 
of Japan, by Engelb. Kampfer, M. D., trans. by J. G. Scheuch- 
zer;-London, 1728, folio, Vol. 1, p. 162.* 
_(4.) A. D. 532. “In the same year [A. D. 532] there hap- 
pened a great chasing of stars from evening until morning, so 
that every one was amazed, and cried out—The stars are falling! 
We never knew any thing like it!” 
“Tod odt® éter al dotiguy yéyove Oeduog mtokds asd Eordous guig ab- 
yous: Gore mivtas éxabijrrecbar, xal Adyery, Ste of dotéges alatovar, xa! ovx 
oldauer mot? toLotro mony 0.” — Theophanis Chronographia : Hist. By- 
zant. Script. Corp..ed. Venet. fol. 1729, tom. 6, p. 126. 
The following account of the same event is given by Cedre- 
nus: “In the same year there was a great running of stars, S° 
that all were astonished, and exclaimed—See ! the stars are fall- 
ing! We don’t know what is to happen.”—G'eo. Cedreni Comp. 
Hist. ; Hist. Byz. Sc. Corp. tom. 7, p- 292,—Stated also in Jo. 
Malalz Chronog. I. 18, p. 477, cons. B. G. Niehbuhr, Bonne, 8vo. 
1838. — 
This is the shower referred to A. D. 533, in Chladni’s Fewer 
Meteore, , TS ty aS eae: ; 
ee ee 
* In the same work are the two following accounts, which may perhaps so 
to meteoric showers. 
A.D “In the 40th year of his reign, [i. e. of Synin,] on @ olear and 0 
rene day, there arose of a sudden in China, a violent storm of thunder and light- 
ning: Comets, Fiery-Dragons and uncommon Meteors appeared in the Air, and ut 
rain'd fire from Heaven.” p. 163. - 
A.D. 771. “In the second year of his reign, [i. e. of Koonin,] there happened 
a storm of thunder and lightning dreadful beyond expression. It rained fire from 
Heaven, like stars, and the air was filled with a frightful noise.” P- 175. it 
n E. H. Burritt’s Geography of the Heavens, (5th ed. 1838, 12mo-) P- 161,1 
is said that “as early as the year 472, in the month of November, a. phenomeno® 
of this kind [a shower of shooting stars] took place near Constantinople. As 
phanes relates, ‘ the sky appeared to be on fire with the coruscations © * 
meteors.”” ‘This is a mistake. It was a shower of volcanic dust from — 
. 
