, ii., 26 and 27) had reference to the tongue-shaped rising
zodiacal light, as Cassini (p. 231, art. xxxi.) and Mairan (p. 15) have
maintained. Every where among the ancients the trabes are associated with
the bolides (ardores et faces) and other fiery meteors, and even with
long-barbed comets. (Regarding [Greek words] . see Sch??fer, 'Schol. Par.
ad Apoll. Rhod.', 1813, t. ii., p. 206; Pseudo-Aristot., 'de Mundo, 2, 9;
'Comment. Alex. Joh. Philop. et Olymp. in Aristot. Meteor.', lib. i., cap.
vii., 3, p. 195, Ideler; Seneca, 'Nat. Qu??st.', i., 1.)
We may conjecture, with much probability, that the remarkable light on the
elevated plains of Mexico, seen for forty nights consecutively i8n 1509, and
observed in the eastern horizon rising pyramidally from the earth, was the
zodiacal light. I found a notice of this phenomenon in an ancient Aztec
MS., the 'CodexTelleriano-Remensis',* preserved in the Royal Library at
Paris.
[footnote] *Humboldt, 'Monumens des Peuples Indig??nes de l'Am??rique', t.
ii., p. 301. The rare manuscript which belonged to the Archbishop of
Rheims, Le Tellier, contains various kinds of extracts from an Aztec ritual,
an astrological calendar, and historical annals, extending from 1197 to
1549, and embracing a notice of different natural phenomena, epochs of
earthquakes and comets (as, for instance, those of 1490 and 1529), and of
(which are important in relation to Mexican chronology) solar eclipses.
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