The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1893-05-31
ABOUT FALLING STARS.

IA Star a Curious GaIician Legend.
Here and there in the highways ana
byways of the world many legends and
SupcrstitiOnS still linger and continue
to retain their ancient prestige. In
G~alicia, the province northeast OF Hun
gary, the peasants believe hat when a
star falls to earth it is at once trans
formed into a rarely beautiful woman,
with long hair, blonde and glittering.
This splendid creature, miraculOusly
engendered, exercises On all who come
in contact with her a magical influence.
Every handsome youth unfortunate
enough to attract her attention becomes
her victim. Thus having allured them
to her, she encircles them with her
arms in an embrace that becomes
gradually tighter and tighter until the
poor dupes are strangled to death. If
certain words are murmured the mo-
ment the star starts to fall they cause
her allurements to lose their power.
From this superstition springs the
custom of wishing while a star is seen
hurrying through the air, a wish said
surely to come true if completely form
ulated before the light is extinguished.
The Spaniards saw in the falling
stars the souls of their dead friends the
thread Of whose existence was cut short
by destiny. The Arabs thought these
stars to be burning stones thrown by
the angels on to the heads of devils who
attempted to enter Paradise. The
Koran reprOduceS and cOnsecrates this
idea and it is found in all the regions
under the influence of Islam. 1t is to
this particular idea that Moore refers
in the following lines from paradise
and the PERI
FIeetcr than the starry brands.
Flung at night from angel hands,
At those dark and daring spirits
Who would climb the empyreal heights.
Another ancient superstition belong
ing originally to the pagans, but one to
which the Christians chung, is hat the
world will come to an end when it rains
stars. 1t is related that during the
third year of the reign of Constantine
the Red sea entirely froze and in the
following March so many stars fell
from the sky that people thought the
contamination of the centuries was at
hand.
The Chinese were the first to make
observations regarding the phenomena
of falling stars. Notes concerning
these phenomena are to be found in the
writings of the Celestial astronomers
as early as 6S7 A. ID. These notes are
preserved in the observatory of the
court at Pekin, that famous mathemat-
zeal tribunal watching constantly over
the empire and guiding and directing
It's course by means of knowledge ac-
quired from continual study of the
h. aVenS.
All the observations recorded during
the years forming the epoch between
GN1 and 1G41 have been made public. but
everything learned pOsteriOr to the lat
ter date are still "a secret and viii re-
main II until the powers now in au-
thOrity are eXtinguished and cease to
occupy the throne. The reason of this
is the existence of an ancient custom
forbidding the publishing such data
during the reign of a dynasty. The
family at present ruling in the LAND of
the queue reaches in an unbrOken line
back to the middle of the seventeenth
century.
Very few are the notices made Ivy old
Greek writer's Of falling stars: however
Virgil and Livy DO give some ccoun
of them. On the contrary The clrDni-
cies of the Middle Ages are full of de-
scriptiOns Of both falling stars and me-
teOric~ apparitions which were generally
regarded with fear and ~trrmE;;n- as
warnings Of evil to come. Philadelphia
Press.