FIRE-BALLS AND SHOOTING STARS.
Humboldt relates, that a friend at Popayan, at an elevation of 5583 feet above the sea-level, at noon, when the sun was shining brightly in a cloudless sky, saw his room lighted up by a fire-ball: he had his back towards the window at the time, and on turning round, perceived that great part of the path traversed by the fire-ball was still illuminated by the brightest radiance. The Germans call these phenomena star-snuff, from the vulgar notion that the lights in the firmament undergo a process of snuffing, or cleaning. Other nations call it a shot or fall of stars, and the English star-shoot. Certain tribes of the Orinoco term the pearly drops of dew which cover the beautiful leaves of the heliconia star-spit. In the Lithuanian mythology, the nature and signification of falling stars are embodied under nobler and more graceful symbols. The Parcæ, Werpeja, weave in heaven for the new-born child its thread of fate, attaching each separate thread to a star. When death approaches the person, the thread is rent, and the star wanes and sinks to the earth.—Jacob Grimm.