14 EASTERN ETHIOPIA i 



important moment in connection with the fasting 

 during Ramadan. 



The zodiacal light is often brilliant in the evening, 

 especially in the neighbourhood of the equator, and it 

 persists longer than the morning form. When the 

 moon shines in the early morning it is difficult to dis- 

 tinguish the false dawn with certainty ; when Venus is 

 a morning or an evening star, her rays are sufficient to 

 obscure the zodiacal light. The brilliancy of those 

 stars which lie in the luminous triangle is in no way 

 diminished. 



In Mombasa the stars sometimes shine with extra- 

 ordinary brilliancy, and it is an impressive sight to see 

 Orion glittering in the zenith, with Sirius, Fomalhaut, 

 and the Southern Cross, in the east, and the Great Bull 

 " low on the Western Main." 



Among other natural phenomena of the tropics which 

 appeal to those visiting these regions for the first time, 

 mention may l)e made of the great width and vividness 

 of the rainbow; the rapidity with which the sun appears 

 to rise above or slip below the rim of the horizon at 

 sunrise and sunset, and the briefness of the twilight. It 

 is true that in order to appreciate the cosmic as well as 

 the biologic aspects of countries on, or near, the ecjuator 

 " they must be seen with northern eyes." 



