Evidence as to the affinity between these breeds is afforded by the fact that a breed of cattle very similar to that at Chillingham was found in Wales in the 10th century; these cattle being white with red ears. Individuals of this race survived till at least 1850 in Pembroke, where they were at one time kept perfectly pure as a part of the regular farm-stock. Until a period comparatively recent, they were relatively numerous, and were driven in droves to the pasturages of the Severn and the neighbouring markets. Their whole essential characters are the same as those of the cattle at Chillingham. Their horns are white, tipped with black, and extended and turned upwards in the manner distinctive of the park-breed. The inside of the ears and the muzzle are black, and the feet are black to the fetlock joint. The skin is unctuous and of a deep-toned yellow colour. Individuals of the race were sometimes born entirely black, and then were not to be distinguished from the common Pembroke cattle of the mountains.
It is thus evident that park-cattle are an albino offshoot from the ancient Pembroke black breed, which, from their soft and well-oiled skins, are evidently natives of a humid climate, such as that of the forests in which dwelt the wild aurochs. This disposes of a theory that they are descendants of a white sacrificial breed introduced into Britain by the ancient Romans.
The Pembroke and park-cattle are, however, by no means the sole descendants of the aurochs, the black Spanish fighting-bulls claiming a similar descent. This breed shows a light-coloured line along the spine, which was characteristic of the aurochs. It has also been suggested that the Swiss Siemental cattle are nearly related to the aurochs. The latter was a gigantic animal, especially during the Pleistocene period; the skulls and limb-bones discovered in the brick-earths and gravels of the Thames valley and many other parts of England having belonged to animals that probably stood six feet at the shoulder.
(R. L.*)
AURORA (perhaps through a form ausosa from Sansk. ush, to burn; the common idea of “brightness” suggests a connexion with aurum, gold), the Roman goddess of the dawn, corresponding to the Greek goddess Eos. According to Hesiod (Theog. 271) she was the daughter of the Titan Hyperion and Thea (or Euryphassa), and sister of Helios and Selene. By the Titan Astraeus, she was the mother of the winds Zephyrus, Notus and Boreas, of Hesperus and the stars. Homer represents her as rising every morning from the couch of Tithonus (by whom she was the mother of Emathion and Memnon), and drawn out of the east in a chariot by the horses Lampus and Phaëthon to carry light to gods and men (Odyssey, xxiii. 253); in Homer, she abandons her course when the sun is fully risen (or at the latest at mid-day, Iliad, ix. 66), but in later literature she accompanies the sun all day and thus becomes the goddess of the daylight. From the roseate shafts of light which herald the dawn, she bears in Homer the epithet “rosy-fingered.” The conception of a dawn-goddess is common in primitive religions, especially in the Vedic mythology, where the deity Usás is closely parallel to the Greco-Roman; see Paul Regnaud, Le Rig-Véda in Annales du musée Guimet, vol. i. c. 6 (Paris, 1892). She is also represented as the lover of the hunter Orion (Odyssey, v. 121), the representative of the constellation that disappears at the flush of dawn, and the youthful hunter Cephalus, by whom she was the mother of Phaëthon (Apollodorus iii. 14. 3). In works of art, Eos is represented as a young woman, fully clothed, walking fast with a youth in her arms; or rising from the sea in a chariot drawn by winged horses; sometimes, as the goddess who dispenses the dews of the morning, she has a pitcher in each hand. In the fresco-painting by Guido Reni in the Rospigliosi palace at Rome, Aurora is represented strewing flowers before the chariot of the sun. Metaphorically the word Aurora was used (e.g. Virg. Aen. viii. 686, vii. 606) for the East generally.
AURORA, a city of Kane county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the N.E. part of the state, on the Fox river, about 37 m. W. of Chicago. Pop. (1890) 19,688; (1900) 24,147, of whom 5075 were foreign-born; (1910) 29,807. Aurora is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago & North-Western, the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern, and the Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota railways, and is connected with Chicago by an electric line. The city has a soldiers’ memorial hall, erected by popular subscription, and a Carnegie library. Aurora is an important manufacturing centre; among its manufactures are railway cars—the shops of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railway being here—flour and cotton, carriages, hardware specialties, corsets, suspenders, stoves and silver-plate. In 1905 the city’s factory products were valued at $7,329,028, an increase of 30% in 5 years. The municipality owns and operates the water-works and electric-lighting plants. The first settlement in the vicinity of Aurora was made in 1834. In 1845 the village of East Aurora was incorporated, and West Aurora was incorporated nine years later. In 1853 the two villages were united under a city charter, which was superseded by a revised charter in 1887.
AURORA, a city of Lawrence county, Missouri, U.S.A., 275 m. S.W. of St Louis, on the St Louis & San Francisco, and the St Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern railways. Pop.(1890) 3482; (1900) 6191; (1910) 4148. It is situated near a lead and zinc mining region, where surface lead was discovered in 1873 and systematic mining began in 1887; among the cities of the state it is second to Joplin in mineral importance, and has large iron-works and flour-mills; mining machinery also is manufactured. Farming and fruit-growing are carried on in the surrounding country, and Aurora is the place from which the products are shipped. Aurora was platted in 1870 and was chartered as a city in 1886.