WHEN COMETS DO APPEAR.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVII, Issue LVIII, 10 May 1910, Page 5

WHEN COMETS DO APPEAR.

THE HARBINGERS OF EVIL. "When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes!" So wrote Shakespeare in Julius Caesar, expressing a superstition which long ages had fastened upon the people. When scientists first began to talk of the return of Halley's comet those good people who read the stars to, find the fate-of mere mortals asked: "What event of world-wide importance does the oomet presage?" On Saturday observers witnessed the "flaming sword across the sky" as a much more brilliant spectacle than on any previous morning. That day the King died. Of course it was coincidence, but coincidence of an intensely interesting nature. In a recent magaeino article Mr H. C. McKay observed that the first author tie' record we have of Halley's corneL from history is its return to circle- about the sun in B.C. 12. "Comets presage tho birth and death of heroes ;*' and tho sword-shaped beam of the "bearded star" was accepted as a. death-omen for tho man who had saved Rome at Actium—the great Agrippa. The sign faded ; the conqueror ' died ; tho comet returned to tko invisible limits of its long path. Then again terrified watchers pointed out a blazing portent in the sky in the fateful year A.I). 66, as the wanderer responded nuow to the pull of our sun. Like a threat tho huge ray hung over sacred Jerusalem, the destruction of the city quickly following the omen. The next returns were evidently not conspicuous, for history has no record. But in 452 the comet brought tragedy and devastation in its train, as it followed the fortunes of the "Scourge of God"—the great Hun leader, Attila. Conqueror of the world, the warrior hastened in triumph to the bridal feast, where the beautiful Ildica was to become his—and there fell lifeless, mysteriously stricken, under canopy of a sky where blazed tho wonder-star. Again and again the comet returned, now 3 rapidly growing to monster size, every

re-appearance associated with memorable or calamitous events. It inaugurated tho fifty years' plague in Persia; it shone forth when Mahomet began to teach in Mecca city. It. literally caused the death of Louis the Debonair. The unhappy monarch, in spite of the assurances of his astrologers, read in the strange star his death-warrant, fell into a me-ancholy, sickened arfd died. And now the comet busied itself with the story of England. William the Conqueror, long covetous of the Saxons' island, prepared to invade it from Normandy; and lo! the "bearded star" blazed suddenly into the sky. "It is my star of victory," asserted the monarch, shrewdly seizing the advantage lent himby Saxon horror of the portent; and under the "flaming scythe" of the comet ho dipped eager keels in th© eea that bore him to the battleground of Hastings. His queen, Mati'da, has worked with her own fingers tho picture of the "marvellous star" into the famous Bayoux tapestry. A few periods later the comet, still increasing m size, came back with Zenghis Khan, and the hordes of Asia began to over-run Europe. The climax came with the monster apparition of 1456, which hung like a sword over Belgrade, then besieged by swarming Turks. Had the citadel fallen, Europe would be at present an Asiatic stronghold. The Pope had ordered prayers "against the Turks and the comet" — (This has since been refuted by Roman Catholic authorities. — Ed.)— thus definitely assigning it to the Asian cause; but the star of illomen seemed to have lost its power ; for the chivalry of Europe sallied Uprth, led by the famous Hunyadi, and signally overwhelmed the infidel, comet and all. Thus, for a time, was broken the evil spell of the comet; for we hear little more of it from history. No doubt in 1985, when Halley's comet again returns within view of this earth after its extraordinary 75 years' journey into unfathomable space, astrologers will remind the people that the last appearance of this visitor witnessed the doath of the first man in the whole world, the death of Edward the Peacemaker.