354 Star-Showers of Former Times. 



night were seen great numbers of stars, which moved, as if they 

 had been darted through the atmosphere, from a culminating 

 point, and rushed down on the right and left, hke rain. On ac- 

 count of this phenomenon, this year was called the year of stars." 



" Dans la lime Dylcada de I'annee 289, mourut le roi Ibrahim 

 ben Ahmet, et dans le meme nuit, on vit un nombre considerable 

 d'etoiles, qui comme si elles eussent ete lancees dans les airs, 

 partaient d'un point culminant et se precipitaient a droite et a 

 gauche sous forme de pluie. C'est a cause de ce phenomene que 

 cette annee a pris le nom diAnnee des etoiles.'^ Conde : Hist. 

 de la Domination des Maures en Fspagne, I, 397, quoted by M. 

 Fraehn, (as above,) who states that the date is the 2ith or 25th 

 October, A. D. 902. First quoted in part by Von Hammer, 

 Comptes Rend. Acad. Sci., 1837, I, 293. 



The following probably refers to the same occurrence : " Anno 

 Dominicae Incarnationis 902, urbs Tauromenis a Sarracenis capta 

 est. Eodem anno in nocte visi sunt igniculi in modum stellaram 

 per aera discurrentes : qua nocte Rex Africae residens super Cosen- 

 tiam Calabrise civitatem, Dei judicio, mortuus est." — Chronicon 

 Romualdi II, Archiepisc. Salernitani : in Muratori, Rer. Ital. 

 Scr. t. vii, p. 160. 



(17.) A. D. 912 or 913. "I will here add what I have seen 

 in a commentator on the Astronomical Aphorisms of Ptolemy, the 

 last of which begins thus : ' Shooting stars indicate dryness of 

 the air ; if they all go towards the same quarter of the heavens, 

 they foreshow winds which will blow from that quarter, but if 

 they scatter in all parts of the heavens they indicate the drying 

 up of the water, disturbances in the atmosphere, and the incur- 

 sions of armies moving in various directions.' The commentator 

 remarks, ' I remember that in the year 290 [of the Hegira, be- 

 ginning Dec. 4, A. D. 902] there were seen in Egypt burning 

 meteors which scattered themselves through the sky and filled 

 the whole expanse ; they caused great terror and increased con- 

 tinually.* A short time after, a great dearth of water was felt in 

 this country : the Nile rose only thirteen cubits, and violent distur- 

 bances arose which caused the ruin of the dynasty of the Toulou- 

 nisin Egypt. In the year 300 [beginning Aug. 17, A. D. 912] 

 the same phenomena were seen in all parts of the sky ; the flow 



* If the dates ai-e correct, this must be a case different from No. (16.) 



