Early descriptions of Auroræ.
In Aristotle’s ‘De Meteoris,’ Lib. I. c. iv. and v., the Aurora is described as an appearance resembling flame mingled with smoke, and of a purple red or blue colour. Pliny (Lib. II. c. xxvii.) speaks of a bloody appearance of the heavens which seemed like a fire descending on the earth, seen in the third year of the 107th Olympiad, and of a light seen in the nighttime equal to the brightness of the day, in the Consulship of Cæcilius and Papirius (Lib. II. c. xxxiii.), both of which may be referred to Auroræ.
In the ‘Annals of Philosophy,’ vol. ix. p. 250, it is stated that the Aurora among English writers is first described by Matthew of Westminster, who relates that in A.D. 555 lances were seen in the air (“quasi species lancearum in aëre visæ sunt a septentrionali usque ad occidentem”).
In the article in the ‘Edinb. Encyc.’ vol. iii. (1830), the Aurora (known to the vulgar as “streamers” or “merry dancers”) is distinguished in two kinds—the “tranquil” and the “varying.” Musschenbroek enumerates as forms:—trabs, “the beam,” an oblong tract parallel to the horizon; sagitta, “the arrow;” faces, “the torch;” capra saltans, “the dancing goat;” bothynoë, “the cave,” a luminous cloud having the appearance of a recess or hollow in the heavens, surrounded by a corona; pithiæ, “the tun,” an Aurora resembling a large luminous cask. The two sorts of Auroræ distinguished as the “bothynoë” and “pithiæ” are evidently taken from the passage in Seneca’s ‘Quæstiones’ before quoted. In ‘Liberti Fromondi Meteorologicorum’ (London, 1656), Lib. II. cap. v. “De Meteoris supremæ regionis aëris,” art. 1. De Capra, Trabe, Pyramide, &c., these and other fantastic forms attributable to Auroræ are more fully described.
In the article “Aurora Polaris,” Encyc. Brit. edit. ix., we find noted that from a curious passage in Sirr’s ‘Ceylon and the Cingalese,’ vol. ii. p. 117, it would seem that the Aurora, or something like it, is visible occasionally in Ceylon, where the natives call it “Buddha Lights,” and that in many parts of Ireland a scarlet Aurora is supposed to be a shower of blood. The earliest mentioned Aurora (in Ireland) was in 688, in the ‘Annals of Cloon-mac-noise,’ after a battle between Leinster and Munster, in which Foylcher O’Moyloyer was slain.
In the article in the Edinb. Encyc. before referred to it is stated that it was not much more than a century ago that the phenomenon had been noticed to occur with frequency in our latitudes.
Dr. Halley had begun to despair of seeing one till the fine display of 1716.
Early notices of Auroræ not frequent in our latitudes.
The first account on record in an English work is said to be in a book entitled ‘A Description of Meteors by W. F. D. D.’ (reprinted, London, 1654), which speaks of “burning spears” being seen January 30, 1560. The next is recorded by Stow as occurring on October 7, 1564; and, according to Stow and Camden, an Aurora was seen on two nights, 14th and 15th November, 1574.
Twice, again, an Aurora was seen in Brabant, 13th February and 28th September, 1575. Cornelius Gemma compared these to spears, fortified cities, and armies fighting in the air. Auroræ were seen in 1580 and 1581 in Wirtemberg, Germany.