1 
MOMBASA 
13 
The zodiacal light is visible in Northern latitudes in 
the morning during the months of September and 
October, and in the evening during February and 
March. For many years I have watched for this cone 
of light in England and never felt satisfied that I 
had seen it. In 1903, when I was watching from the 
deck of a ship in the Indian Ocean in order to see the 
planet Mercury rise shortly before the dawn, the eastern 
sky was illuminated by a large triangular area of soft 
white light, so bright that I hastily looked at my 
watch fearing lest I had come on deck too late, and 
had missed my opportunity of seeing Mercury. To my 
OTeat astonishment this beautiful luminous area con- 
O 
tracted, shortened, and faded away ; the darkness again 
became profound until the true dawn. Then, realising 
that I had seen the “false dawn,” the lines of Omar’s 
quatrain came instinctively to my lips :— 
Before the phantom of False morning died, 
Methought a voice within the tavern cried 
“When all the Temple is prepared within, 
Why nods the drowsy Worshipper outside.” 
I have often watched on deck in the early morning 
when crossing the Indian Ocean, but have never seen 
the light so intense as on this occasion. A captain 
who had spent many years in traversing this ocean 
told me that one morning when lying outside an Indian 
harbour, with a difficult entry, waiting for the dawn, 
the “ false dawn ” was so bright that he mistook it for 
the real dawn, and, having weighed anchor, proceeded 
to steam into the harbour, but the light faded and he 
had to await the real dawn. 
The “ false dawn ” or dawn’s “ left hand,” as it is 
sometimes called in the poetical imagery of the East, is 
of some concern to the jnuezzin who wakes the “ drowsy 
worshipper ” by shouting from the minaret. The 
Mahomedan day begins with the real dawn, an 
