386 F I 
Being. They did not burn their dead, fays Herodotus, 
betaufe they thought it profane to feed a divinity with 
human carcafes. Yet they extinguifhed the facred fire 
throughout all Perlia upon the death of their kings; a 
cuftom, fays M. Roques, not more refpectful towards fire 
as a divinity, than to ufe it for profane purpofes, and 
(which they actually did) for the execution of criminals. 
The Egyptians regarded fire as a voracious animal that 
devours whatever it can feize, and when faturated finally 
expires with what it has confirmed. The Chaldeans did 
not worthip fire; and the fuppofed contention between 
Canopus the god of the Egyptians and the Fire of the 
Perfians, related by Suidas and Rufinus, is no doubt a 
mere fable. See Herodot. in Thalia, cap. xvi. Saurin’s 
.Oifiertations, vol. i. p. 163. vii. 529. 8vo. edit, and Britton 
de Regno Perfico, § 44. 
FIRE-ARMS, J. arms which owe their efficacy to fire ; 
guns.—Before the ufe of fire-arms there was infinitely 
more fcope for perfonal valour than in the modern bat¬ 
tles. Pope. 
FIRE-ARROW, f. a kind of iron dart, furnifhed with 
fprings and bars, and alfo with a match, wound about its 
fhaft. It is fometimes reforted to by privateers and pi¬ 
rates, to fire the fails of the enemy’s fhip ; and for this 
purpofe it is difcharged from a mufket, or a fwivel gun. 
The match being kindled by the explofion, it communi¬ 
cates the flame to the fail againlt which it is directed, 
where the arrow fallens itfelf by means of its bars and 
fprings. This weapon was formerly much in ufe, parti¬ 
cularly in hot climates; for there, the fails being very 
dry, are quickly fet on fire, and the lire foon conveyed 
io the veirel itfelf. 
FIRE-BALL, f. a term applied not only to that vivid 
body of fire which in thunder (forms is frequently feen to 
fall on the earth, but alfo to thofe luminous bodies which 
fometimes appear at a great height above the earth, and 
with a fplendour greatly furpafling that of the moon. 
Thefe do not feem to obferve any regular courfe, but, on 
the contrary, move in all directions, and with different de¬ 
grees of velocity; frequently breaking into feveral fmaller 
ones; fometimes making a flrong hiding found, and fome¬ 
times burfting with a loud report. The firfl of thefe, of 
which we have any accurate account, was obferved by Dr. 
Halley, and fome other philofophers at different places, 
in the year 1719, the height of which above the furface 
©f the earth was computed at more than feventy miles. 
Many others have been obferved fince that time, and ac¬ 
curately defcribed by different philofophers. One of the 
anoft remarkable on record, appeared on the 18th of Augufl 
27S3, about nine o’clock in tlie evening. It was feen to 
Jhe northward of Shetland, and took a fouth-eafterly di¬ 
rection for an immenfe fpace, being obferved as far as the 
fouthern provinces of France, and by fome it was faid 
to have been feen at Rome, paffing over a fpace of one 
thoufand miles in about half a minute of time, and at a 
very great height. During its courfe it appeared feveral 
times to change its thape; fometimes appearing in the 
form of one ball, fometimes of two or more ; fometimes 
with a train, and fometimes without one. 
M. Baudin, profeflbr of philofophy at Pan, gives the 
following account of a fire-ball feen in Gafcony : “ At 
half after ten o'clock on Sunday evening, July 24, 1790, 
walking in the court of the cafile of Mormes, with M. de 
Carrits Barbotan, the atmolphere being perfeClly calm, 
and not a cloud >o be feen, we found ourfelves furround- 
ed, all of a hidden, by a whiti'h clear light, which ob- 
fcured that of the moon, though nearly at the full. On 
looking upwards we obferved, almoft in our zenith, a 
fire-ball of a larger diameter than the moon. It had a 
tail, the length of which feemed to be equal to about five 
or fix times the diameter of the body : at the place where 
it was connected with the body it had about the fame 
breadth, and decreafed gradually till it ended in a point. 
The ball and the tail were of a pale white colour: but 
the point of the latter was almoft as red as blood. The 
R E. 
direction of this meteor, which proceeded with great ve¬ 
locity, was from fouth to north. Scarcely had we looked at 
it for two feconds when it divided itfelf into feveral por¬ 
tions of confiderable fize, which we faw fall in different 
directions, and almoft with the fame appearance as the 
burfting of a bomb. All thefe different fragments be¬ 
came extinguifhed in the air, and fome of them, in falling, 
affirmed that blood red colour which I had obferved in 
the point of the tail. About three minutes after, we 
heard the explofion, as if feveral large piec es of ordnance 
had been fired off together. The concuffton of the at- 
mofphere by this ftiock was fo great, that we all thought 
an earthquake had taken place. The windows fftook in 
their frames, and fome of them, which probably were 
not clolely flint, were throw n open. We proceeded into 
the garden, while the noife ftill continued, and appeared 
to be in a perpendicular direction above us. Some time 
after, when it had ceafed, we heard a hollow noife, which 
feemed to roll along the chain of ; lie Pyrenees, in echoes, 
for the diffance of fifteen miles. It continued about four 
minutes, becoming gradually more remote, and always 
weaker; and at the fame time we perceived a (trong fmell 
of fulphur. While we were viewing the place where the 
meteor had divided itfelf, we obferved a fmall whitilh 
cloud, which arofe perhaps from the vapour of it, and 
which concealed from us the three ftars of the great hear 
lying in the middle of thofe forming the feinicircle. With 
fome difficulty, however, we could at laft diffinguifh thefe 
ffars again behind the thin cloud. From the time that 
elapfed between the burffing of the ball and the explo¬ 
fion which followed, I was inclined to think that the 
meteor was at the height of, at leaft, feven or eight miles, 
and that it fell four miles to the north of Mormes. M, 
de Carrits Barbotan, who was at Juliac two days after, 
confirmed to us the truth of this circumftance; and it 
appeared from the accounts of feveral intelligent perfons, 
that the meteor burlt at a little diffance from Juliac, and 
that the Hones which fell were found lying in an almoft 
circular fpace, about two miles in diameter. They were 
of various fizes ; and as they defcended, they made a ftrong 
whiffling noife that many perfons heard. Some of thefe 
{tones weighed eighteen or twenty pounds, and had funk 
into the earth from two to three feet. M. de C. Barbo¬ 
tan procured one weighing eighteen pounds, which he 
tranfmitted'ro the National Inftitute at Paris. I examined 
a fmall (tone which was brought to me, and found ij 
very heavy in proportion to its fize : it was black on 
the outlide, of a greyifh colour in the infide, and inter- 
fperfed with a number of Alining metallic particles. On 
ftriking it with a piece of fteel, it produced a few fmall 
dark red fparks, not very lively. A mineralogift, to 
whom it was fhown at Paris, defcribed it as a grey flag 
mixed with calcareous (par, the furface of which exhi¬ 
bited vitrified blackifh calx of iron. This meteor was 
feen at Bayonne, Audi, Pan, Tarbes, Bourdeaux, and 
Thouloufe.” 
Another phenomenon of the fame kind was noticed by 
F. C. Fulda, and noticed in Profeflbr Gmelin’s Journal, 
as follows: “Oil the 13th of July, 1797, about forty-two 
minutes after nine in the evening, 1 had the good for¬ 
tune, when in company with feveral of my friends, to 
fee a meteor of this kind. It appeared in the fouthern 
part of the horizon, at the height of eight or ten degrees ; 
had the form of a perfect globe or fphere well defined at 
the edges, almoft as large as the moon when at full, and 
proceeded in the fpace of fcarcely a fecond, while its 
courfe was only marked by a fine white (treak of light, in 
an almoft perpendicular direction towards our horizon. 
Its colour and fplendour near the middle were fometimes 
of a dazzling white. The heat during the day, and in 
the evening, was confiderable. The thermometer varied 
from 18 to 20 of Reaumur, and between the hours of four 
and five iff the afternoon there had been a ftorm in the 
fame quarter of the heavens. At the furface of the earth 
there was a perfect calm } and in the evening the weather- 
1 cocks 
