Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1893-06-03
A FAILING STAR.
A Galician Legend Which Gives the
Origin Of an Old Custom

A Galician Legend Which Gives the
Origin Of an Old Custom
Here and there in the highways and
byways of the world many legends
and supersddons stil lnger and con
tinue to retain their ancient prestige
In Galicia, the province northeast Of
Hungary, says the Philadelphia Press,
the peasants believe that when a star
fails to earth it is mt once transformed
into a rarely beautiful woman with
long hair, blonde and glitteIing. This
splendid creature, miraculously engen-
cred, exercises on all who come in CON
tact with her a magical influence
Every handsome youth unfortunate
enough to attract her attention be
comes her victim Thus having allured
them to her she encircles them with her
arms in an embrace that becomes grad
ually tighter and tighter until the poor
dupes are strangled to death. If certain
words are muImured the moment the
star starts to fall they cause her al
lurements to lose their power From
this superstition springs the custom of
wishing while a star is seen hurrying
through the air, wish said surely to
come true If completely formulated be-
fore 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, II is to this pc
culiar idea That Moore refers in the fol-
lowing lines from Paradise and the
PERI"
"Fleetcr than the starry brands.
Flung at night from angel hands,
At those dark and daring sprites
Who would climb the empyreal
heights"
Another ancient superstition belong
Ing originally to the pagans, but one
to which the Christians chung, is that
the world win come to an end when it
Gains stars. It is related that duvng
the third year of the reign of Constn-
tine the Red sea entirely frozc and
the following March so many stars fell
from the sky that people thought the
end of the world was mt
hand The Chinese we e the first To
make observation regarding tac 1be-
uomena OF falling stars NCt,s con
ccuing these phenomena are TO be
found in the writings Of the celestial
astronomers as early as OF A. d.
These notes are preserved in the OBJ
seryatory Of the court at Pekin, that IA
nous mathematical tribunal watching
constantly over the empire and guiding
and directing its course by means Of
knowledge acquired from continual
study Of the heavens All the obSer-
vations recorded during the years form
ing the epoch between 6ST and 1G47
have been made public, but everything
learned posterior to the later date are
still a secret and will remain one until
the powers now in authority are eXtin-
guished and cease to occupy the throne.
The reason for this is the existence of
an ancient custom forbidding the pub
fishing Of such data during the reign
of a dynasty. The family at present
ruling in the hand Of the queue reaches
in an mbroken line back to the middle
Of the seventeenth century Very few
are the notices made by old Greek
writer's Of falling stars However, Vir-
gil and Tivy do give some account of
them On the contrary, the chronicles
Of the middle ages are full Of descrip-
lions Of both falling stars and meteorc
which were generally re-
gardcd with fear and trembling rs
of evil to come.