465, The stone denominated the mother of the gods, alluded to by so many ancient writers, and the source of so many learned, and so many foolish conjectures, is stated by Appian, Herodian, and Marcellinus, to have fall en from heaven. ?ristodemus, quoted by the Greek scholiast on Pindar, asserts, that it fell, encircled by fire, on a bill, and at the feet of the Theban bard. It is said to have been of moderate dimensions, of a black hue, of an irregular angular shape, and of a metallic aspect. An oracle had predicted, that the Romans' would conti nue to increase in prosperity, if they were put in pos session of this precious deposit ; and Publius Scipio Nasica was accordingly deputed to Attalus, king of Pergamus, to obtain and receive the sacred idol, whose worship was instituted at Rome, 204 years before the Chi istian era. According to Valerius Maximus, a stone fell in the March of Ancona : Livy even says, la/zidibus pluit, which would intimate a shower of them.-343. A shower of stones near Rome. Jul. Obscq. 211.—De Guignes relates, that a star fell to the ground in China, and was converted into a stone—an event which created an extraordinary sensation. The inhabitants of the dis trict, willing to convey a moral lesson to their unpopular emperor, caused these words to be engraved on the stone: Chi-Hoang-Ty draws near to death, and his empire will be divided. In the plenitude of his indignation, the empe ror ordered all the inhabitants of the district to be put to death, and the stone to be broken in pieces ; but he died in the course of the following year ; and, three years after, in the reign of his successor Eul-Chi-Hoang Ty, in consequence of a general revolt, the empire was partitioned into many kingdoms, and the dynasty of the Tsins was extinguished.-205, or 206. A shower of fiery stones. Plut.-192. A stone fell in China. De Guignes.-176. A stone is reported by Livy, to have fallen into the Lake of Mars, in the Crustumenian ter ritory.-90, or 89. A shower of stones like bricks. Plin.-89. Two large stones fell at Yong, in China ; and the noise of the explosion was heard over forty leagues. De Guignes.-56, or 52. Spongy iron in Lu cania. Plin.—A shower of stones at Acilla, a town in Africa, mentioned in Ccesar's Commentaries.-38. Six stones fell in the province of Leang in China, De Guig nes.-29. Four at Po, and two in the territory of Tching-ting-fou. Id.-22. Eight in China, Id.-19. Three in China. Id.-12. One at Ton-Korean. Id.-9. Two in China. Sixteen in Ning-Tcheou, and two at You. Id. We may believe, on the authority of De Guignes, that such notices are inserted in the re cords of China ; but we are too little conversant in the literature of that singular country, to determine the pre cise quantity of credence that ought to attach to the no tices themselves; yet, had no such events ever occurred in that part of the world, it is not very probable that they would have been so repeatedly and distinctly re gistered.
P. C. A stone in the territory of the Voeontii, de posited a little before Pliny saw it.—Mondognetius, in Life of Marcus Aurelius, relates, that, in the reign of the Emperor Valentinian, such a copious shower of stones fell at Constantinople, that it killed most of the cattle in the fields, and even some people.-452. Mar cellinus, an officer of the empire, and Count of Illyria, who lived in the reign of Justinian, and continued the chronicle of Jerome, from A. D. 379, to 534, makes mention of three large stones which fell from the hea vens in Thrace; but he is silent as to particulars.—Nov. 5, or 6, 472. A great fall of black dust, probably at Constantinople, during which the heavens seemed to burn.—Procop. Marcell. Theoph. &c. Sixth century. Stones fell on Mount Lebanon, and near Emessa in Syria. Dantascius, in an extract of his Life of Isodorus, Pre served by Photius, relates that the former issued from a globe of fire.—About 570, a shower of stones, near Bender, in Arabia. Akoran.-648. A fiery stone at Constantinople, according to several chronicles.-652. A shower of red dust at the same place. Theo/2h. Ce dren. Math. .Eretz.-811. In the third moon, on the day Wou-siu, between the third and fifth hour after mid day, the sky being. cloudy, and the weather cold, there appeared a globe of fire as large as a hou, (a measure of about ten bushels.) which fell between Van and Fun.
A noise, resembling thunder, was heard at the distance of many leagues, and the people fled with a violent out cry. Above the place where the globe fell, a reddish vapour remained, arranged like a serpent, and a tchang (nearly 12i feet) in length; it remained till the even ing, and then disappeared. Ma-tozzan-lin.-817. In the twelfth year, in the ninth moon, on the day Ki-kaY, about the third or fourth hour after mid-night, there appeared a running star towards the middle of the heavens ; its head was like a bucket, and its tail like a bark of 200 hou burthen ; it was more than ten tchang in length, and made a noise like a number of birds flying ; it produced a light similar to that of the torches used in illumina tions. It passed beneath the moon, moving towards the west ; on a sudden, a great noise was heard, and at the moment the globe fell to the earth, a crash took place thrice as great as that of a falling house. Id.-823. A shower of pebbles in Saxony. filezeray, and Bonaven ture de St. 4mable.-839. It is recorded in the history of Japan, that, in the sixth year of Nin-mio-teno, the 29th day of the eighth moon, there occurred at a place to the west of the town of Thean-tchhenan, where no fragment of stone previously existed, thunder and rain for ten days. The weather having become clear, stones similar to the points of arrows and to hatchets, were found on the earth, some being white and others red.— July, or August, 852. A stone fell in Tabaristan. De Sacy, and Quatremere.—Middle of the ninth century. Red dust, and matter like coagulated blood, fell from the heavens. Kaswini, Elmazen.—December, 856. Five stones fell in Egypt. De Sacy, Quatremere.-885, 886, and 887. Thunder-stones fell in Japan. Ma-touan-lin.— 892 or 897. A stone fell at Ahmedabad. Quatremere.— 905. Stones fell at Hoanglie, in Coree, which caused a noise like thunder. The officers of the place having sent these stones to the court, the president of the cere monies assured the king that the phenomenon of falling stars had occurred so frequently, that it was no longer regarded as a prodigy. In China, certain stones of a black or violet colour are called thunder-hatchets, scis sors, hammers, &e. according to their forms ; and al though they may have been wantonly multiplied, some of them are, probably, of meteoric origin. illa-touan lin, who registers the occurrences of falling stones in China, supposes that these thunder-stones are identical with them.-929. A fall of red sand, from a red sky, at Bagdad. Quatrenzere.-95I. A stone fell near Augs burg, (not in Italy.) Albertus Stadius, and others.— Between 956 and 972. Platina,in his Life of Pope John XIII. enumerates, among the prodigies of the times, the descent of a very large stone during a furious tem pest of wind and rain.-998. Cosmas and Spangenberg relate, that two large stones fell with an explosion like thunder, one of them alighting in the town of Magde burg, and the other in the open country near the Elbe. —i009. Avicenna affirms, that when in Djordjan, (mis represented Lurgra and Cordova.) he saw a sulphureous kind of stone fall from the atmosphere.—Between the 24th of July and the 21st of August, 1021, stones fell in Africa. De Sacy —1056. Red snow fell in Armenia. Math. Eretz.-1110. A burning body fell into the Lake of Van, in Armenia, and made its waters blood red, while the earth was cleft in several places, proba bly with stones. 112. Stones or iron fell near ralvasor.—I 135 or 1136 Spangenberg and others inform us, that a stone as large as the human he.al was precipitated from the air at Oldisleben in Thuringia.-1164 George Fabricius, in the First Book of the History of Misnia, apprizes us of a shower of iron in that country, at Whitsuntide —1198. Stones fell near Paris Henri Sauval —July 1249. Spangenberg and Rivander again [milk the descent of stones in the neigil Dun rhood of Quedlinburg, Ba]Icnstaedt, and B1 tn keli'm rg, its S..xor.y.—Thirteenth century. A stone fell at Wurtzburg. Schotti Phys Cur.—Between 1251 and 1363. stones fell at Welixot•Ussing, in Russia Gab ?n.