57 o A U R 
over, wc find, was celebrated as a feftival with fparts and 
games, under the name of Natalis Navigationis. Germa- 
nicus calls them unfriendly liars to mariners ; and Virgil 
couples them with Arfturus, mentioning their fetting and 
ruing as things of the mod important prefage. Horace 
alfo puts them together as the mod formidable of all the 
dars to thofe who follow the traffic of the fea. And to the 
fame purpofe fpeak all the ancient writers, thus making a 
paid of the condellation Auriga, if not the whole condel- 
lation, a thing to be obferved with the utmod attention, 
and to be feared as much as the blazing Arfturus. 
AURIGA'TION,/. \_auriga, Lat.] The aft or prac¬ 
tice of driving carriages. 
AURIGNAC', a town of France, in the department 
of the Upper Garonne, and chief place of a canton, in the 
didrift of St. Gaudens; thirty-three miles Couth-wed of 
Thouloufe, and ten north-ead of St. Gaudens. 
AURI'GR APHY,/. [of aurum, Lat! and Gr. 
to write.] Writing with gold. 
AURILLAC', a town of France, and principal place 
of a didrift, in the department of Cantel; before the re¬ 
volution, the capital of Lower Auvergne. It is fituated 
in a fertile valley, on the Jordane ; fixty-five pods fouth 
of Paris. Lat. 44. 45. N. Ion. 20. 6. E. Ferro. 
AVRIL'LE, a town of France, in the department of 
Mayne and Loire, and chief place of a canton, in the dif- 
trift of Angers, one league north of Angers. 
AURIOL', a town of France, in the department of the 
Mouths of the Rhone, and chief place of a .canton, in the 
didricl of Aix ; four leagues fouth-ead of Aix^ and four 
north-north-ead of Marfeilles. 
AURIPIGMEN'TUM,/. [from aurum, gold, and pig. 
mentum, Lat. paint.] Orpiment, arfenic ; fo called from 
its colour, and its ufe to painters. 
AURISCAL'PIUM,/ [from auris, the ear, and fcalpo, 
Lat. to fcrape.] An indrument for cleanling the ear. 
AROBZMUNS'TER, a town of Germany, in the cir¬ 
cle of Bavaria, fixteen miles fouth of Paffau. 
AUROIR', a town of France, in the department of the 
Cher, two leagues and a half north-vyed of Sancoins. 
AURON', a river of France, which runs into the Eure 
near Bourges. 
AURON'Z A, a town of Italy, in the Cadorin, feven 
miles north of Pieve di Cadora. 
AURO'RA,/. [ Aurora , Lat. q. d. aurea bora.'] The 
morning twilight, or that faint light which appears in the 
morning when the fun is within eighteen degrees of the 
horizon : 
Aurora (heds 
On Indus’ fmiling banks the rofy fhow’r. Thomfon. 
Aurora was feigned by the ancients the daughter of the 
fun and the moon, and was painted a virgin of a ruddy 
Complexion, having wings, and with a yellow garment : 
in one hand holding a torch, and with the other drewing 
flowers, generally fitting in a chariot of maffive diver. 
Aurora, in fabulous hidory, the daughter of Titan 
and Terra ; others make her the daughter of Hyperion and 
Thia; and fome fay that Pallas, fon of Crius, was her 
father, whence her furname of Pallantias. She is repre- 
fented as covered with a veil, fitting in a gilt chariot drawn 
by white horfes, and opening with her rofy fingers the 
gates of the ead, pouring the dew upon the earth, and 
making the flowers grow. It was under her name that 
the ancients deified the light which foreruns the rifing of 
the fun above our hemifphere. She married Adraeus, by 
whom flte had the Winds, the dars, &c. She had an amour 
with Tithonus, a young prince celebrated for his beauty, 
whom die carried away ; but, when he was advanced in 
-years, die left him, and changed him into a grafshopper. 
After this die fell in love with Cephalus, whom die took 
3way from his wife Procris, caufing them to quarrel; but, 
he refufing her addrelfcs, (he Cent him back to his wife, 
and they were reconciled. She had alfo an intrigue with 
Orion, whom die carried to the ifland of Delos, where he 
was killed by Diana’s arrows. 
A IT R 
Aurora, one of the New Hebrides iflands in the South 
Sea, in which Mr. Forder fuppofes the Peakd’Etoile, men¬ 
tioned by M. Bougainville, to be fituated. The idand is 
inhabited ; but none of its inhabitants came off to vidt 
captain Cook. The country is woody, and the vegetation 
feenied to be exceffively luxuriant. It is about twelve 
leagues long, but not above five miles broad in any part, 
lying nearly north and fouth. Lat. 15. 8. S. Ion. 168.12, E, 
Greenwich. 
Aurora Borealis, Northern Lights, or Streamers-, 
a kind of meteor appearing in the northern part of the 
heavens, modly in the winter-time, and in frody weather. 
It is ufually of a reddidi colour, inclining to yellow, and 
feeds out frequent corufcations of pale light, which feem 
to rife from the horizon in a pyramidal undulating form, 
and (hooting with great velocity up to the zenith. It ap¬ 
pears often in form of an arch, which is partly bright, and 
partly dark, but generally tranfparent. And the mat¬ 
ter of it is not found to have any effeft on the rays of light, 
which pafs freely through it. Dr. Hamilton obferves, that 
he could plainly difcern the fmalled fpeck in the Pleiades 
through the dendty of thofe clouds which formed part of 
the aurora borealis in 1763, without the lead diminution 
of its fplendour, or increafe of twinkling. This kind of 
meteor never appears near the equator ; but it is in the 
arftie regions that it appears in perfeftion, particularly 
during the loldice. In the Schetland iilands, the merry 
dancers, as they are there called, are the condant attend¬ 
ants of clear evenings, and prove great reliefs amidd the 
gloom of the long winter-nights. They commonly appear 
at twilight near the horizon, of a dun colour, approaching 
to yellow; fometimes continuing in that date for feveral 
hours without any fenfible motion ; after which they break 
out into dreams of dronger light, fpreading into columns, 
and altering Oowly into ten thoufand diderent lhapes, va¬ 
rying their colours from all the tints of yellow to the ob- 
fcured ruffet. They often cover the whole hemifphere, 
and then make the mod brilliant appearance. Their mo¬ 
tions at thefe times are mod amazingly quick; and they 
adonifh the fpeftator with the rapid change of their form. 
They break out in places where none were feen before, 
fkimming brifkly along the heavens ; are fuddenly extin- 
guifhed, and leave behind an uniform du(ky track. This 
again is brilliantly illuminated in the fame manner, and as 
fuddenly left a dull blank. In certain nights they affume 
the appearance of vad columns, on one fide of the deeped 
yellow, on the other declining away till it becomes undif- 
tinguidied from the Iky. They have generally a drong 
tremulous motion from end to end, which continues till 
the whole vanidies. In a word, we, who only fee the ex¬ 
tremities of thefe northern phenomena, but have a faint 
idea of their fplendour and magnificence. According to 
the date of the atmofphere, they differ in colours. They 
often put on the colour of blood, and make a mod dread¬ 
ful appearance. The rudic lages then become prophetic, 
and terrify the gazing fpeftators with the dread of war, 
pedilence, and famine. This fuperdition was not pecu¬ 
liar to the northern iilands; nor are thefe appearances of 
recent date. The ancients called them Chajmaia, and 
Trabes , and Bolides, according to their forms or colours. 
In old times they were extremely rare, and on that ac-' 
count were the more taken notice of. From the days of 
Plutarch to thofe of our hidorian Sir Richard Baker, they 
were fuppofed to have been portentous of great events, 
and timid imagination Oiaped them into aerial conflicts: 
Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds 
In ranks and fquadrons and right form of war. 
The only thing that refembles a didinft hidory of this 
phenomenon, is what we have from the learned Dr.Halley, 
Phil.Tranf. No. 347. The fird account he gives, is of 
the appearance of what is called by the author burning 
/pears, and was feen at I.ondon January 30th, 1560. The 
next appearance, on the tedimony of Stow, was on Qfto- 
ber 7th, 1564. In 1574 alfo, according to Camden, and 
Stow 
