[footnote] *Dominicus Cassini ('M??m. de l'Acad.', t. viii., 1730, p. 188),
and Mairan ('Aurore Bor.', p. 16), have even maintained that the phenomenon
observed in Persia in 1668 was the zodiacal light. Delambre ('Hist. de
l'Astron. Moderne', t. ii., p. 742), in very decided trms ascribes the
discovery of this light to the celebrated traveler Chardin; but in the
'Couronnement de Soliman', and in several passages of the narrative of his
travels (??d. de Langl??s. t. iv., p. 326; t. x., p. 97), he only applies
the term niazouk (nyzek), or "petite lance," to "the great and famous comet
which appeared over nearly the whole world in 1668, and whose head was so
hidden in the wewst that it could not be perceived in the horizon of
Ispahan" ('Atlas du Voyage de Chardin', Tab. iv.; from the observations at
Schiraz). The head or nucleus of the comet was, however, visible in the
Brazils and in India (Pingr??, 'Com??togr.', t. ii., p. 22). Regarding the
conjectured identity of the last great comet of March, 1843, with this,
which Cassini mistook for the zodiacal light, see Schum., 'Astr. Nachr.',
1843, No. 476 and 480. In Persian, the term "nizehi ?‰tesch?”n"(fiery
spears or lances) is also applied to the rays of the rising or setting sun,
in the same way as "nay?‰zik," according to Freytag's Arabic Lexicon,
signifies "stell?? cadentes.
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