The stone mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, from which was found “the image which fell down from Jupiter” (Acts xix. 35), was evidently a meteoric stone.[253]
The famous stone in the Caaba at Mecca, is probably a stone of meteoric origin.[253]
I
“Stones from Heaven! Can you wonder,
You who scrutinize the Earth,
At the love and veneration
They received before the birth
Of our scientific methods?
II
“Stones from Heaven! we can handle
Fragments fallen from realms of Space;
Oh! the marvel and the mystery,
Could we understand their place
In the scheme of things created!
III
“Stones from Heaven! With a mighty
Comet whirling formed they part?
Fell they from their lofty station
Like a brilliant fiery dart,
Hurl’d from starry fields of Night?”[254]
CHAPTER XIII
The Zodiacal Light and Gegenschein
According to Gruson and Brugsch, the Zodiacal Light was known in ancient times, and was even worshipped by the Egyptians. Strabo does not mention it; but Diodorus Siculus seems to refer to it (B.C. 373), and he probably obtained his information from some Greek writers before his time, possibly from Zenophon, who lived in the sixth century B.C.[255] Coming to the Christian era, it was noticed by Nicephorus, about 410 B.C. In the Koran, it is called the “false Aurora”; and it is supposed to be referred to in the “Rubáiyát” of Omar Khayyam, the Persian astronomical poet, in the second stanza of that poem (Edward Fitzgerald’s translation)—
“Dreaming when Dawn’s Left Hand was in the Sky,[256]
I heard a voice within the Tavern cry,
Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup,
Before Life’s Liquor in its Cup be dry.”
It was observed by Cassini in 1668,[257] and by Hooke in 1705. A short description of its appearance will be found in Childrey’s Britannia Baconica (1661), p. 183.