Catch a Falling Star Author(s): Hilary Belcher and Erica Swale Reviewed work(s): Source: Folklore, Vol.

95, No. 2 (1984), pp. 210-220 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1260206 . Accessed: 24/02/2012 11:58
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Folklorevol. 95:ii, 1984

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Catcha FallingStar
HILARY BELCHER and ERICA SWALE

FROM time immemorialmen and women have been amazedto see starsfall out of the sky. The Spartanswere said to use the appearanceof a shooting star as a pretext to depose their currentking, a sign of his having sinned againstthe gods. This custom, 'of great antiquity,' became 'a dead letter' even in classical times.' However, a much stranger belief concerning falling stars was widely held in western Europe and elsewhereup to the beginning of this century, and probablylurks in odd cornerstoday. It was thought that when a star fell, its remainscould be seen upon the ground,in the form of a patch or lump of jelly or slime. On the principle of post hoc propterhoc various gelatinous or slimy substances of either plant or animal origin were thus connected with falling stars. It is intended here to give some idea of the distributionof this belief, examine the nature of the various jelly-like substances which have been implicated, supply some historical account of what has been written on the subject, and finally list some literaryallusions. There are a number of eye-witness accounts by observers, who, after seeing a star fall, on going to the place where it appearedto land, were gratifiedto find a jelly-like mass. Such a case is that of the physician and mystical writer Robert Fludd, who in 1619 describedhow a meteor had fallen close to him one night.2Searchingin the fields at dawn the next day, he eventually found a mass of a white slippery substancewith small black spots in it, which he took to be the remains of the shooting star. Similar reports can be found in an article in Nature for 1910 and the subsequent correspondence.For instance, in the eighteen-thirtiesa lock-keeperat Witham, near Lincoln, saw a star fall on to a nearby common, and, on going to the place, found nothing but a lump of jelly, which he describedas shining, and of the size of a plate. In Cumbriaa memberof the Geological Surveywas told by a well-knownlocal botanistof Kirkby Lonsdale that he had once seen a luminous body fall, and found in its place only a mass of white jelly. In a Welsh account, no star was seen, but the jelly fell out of the sky on to the head of a farm workerin a field during the day.3 From the lowlands of Scotland Sir Walter Scott wrote:
It is a common idea that falling stars, as they are called, are convertedinto a sort of jelly. Among the rest, I had often the opportunity to see the seeming shooting of the stars from place to place, and sometimesthey appearedas if falling to the ground, where I once or twice found a white jelly-likematteramong the grass, which I imaginedto be distilled from them; and thence foolishly conjecturedthat the stars themselvesmust certainly consist of a like substance.4

In Cornwall, Robert Hunt reportedin 1881 that:

A mucilaginous substance is often found on the damp ground near the granite quarriesof Penryn, this is often very phosphorescent at night. The country people regardthis as the substance of shooting stars. A tradesmanof Penryn once brought me a bottle full of this substancefor analysis, informingme that the men employed at the quarries, whenever they observed a shooting star, went to the spot near which they supposed it to fall, and they generally found a hatful of this mucus.5

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Accordingto a writer in Notes and Queriesthe belief was still currentin Cornwalland also in County Antrim this century.' The Americanpoet and critic J. R. Lowell, commenting on a passageby Lovelace, described the idea as still current in New England in the mid 19th century, presumably brought in by European settlers.' Two interesting accounts from Massachusetts bear this out. One was by a man whose father had seen a brilliant shooting star flash down and strike the earth. On investigation he found a jelly-like mass with an intolerablyoffensive smell.8 The other was from the early years of the 19th century, when a similar object was seen by a lecturer in chemistry, one Rufus Graves, and associatedby him with a luminous meteor which had fallen the previous evening.' The mass of jelly in this case was circular,about eight inches in diameterby one inch thick, of a bright buff colour, and covered with a fine nap similar to that on milled cloth. The interior was soft, again of an insufferableodour, and liquefied on exposure to the air. More examples from the United States are given by Olmsted, 1834.10 The belief is dealt with briefly in a number of works on naturalhistory and similar subjectsin the 17th and 18th centuries. Thus Thomas White wrote in 1656: 'Amongst ourselves, when any such matter is found in the fields, the very countrymencry out it fell from heav'n and the starres,and as I remember,call it the spittle of the starres.'" John Morton in 1712 spoke of 'that gelatinous body call'd star-gelly,star-shotor starfall'n, so named because vulgarly believed to fall from a star.'"2 In Wales George Bolam (1904) was crossing the Ddwallt range with a farmerwhen they came across a gelatinous fungus which grows commonly upon moors. To the farmer it was 'a cleaning of the stars,' presumably in Welsh, and apparently he believed in its celestial origin.'3 J. W. Vaughan, writing in 1900, had a similar experience.14 Pwdreser or star jelly is dealt with in William Condry's book on Snowdonia (1966)," and Mr. Condry has related to us in a letter how the shooting star explanationof this gelatinous substancewas given to him by a woman born in 1880 at a lonely farm in the Cardiganshire moorlands. That the belief was widely held in Britainis attestedby the many English names for certain jelly-likesubstancesfound on the ground (their identity will be discussed later) which incorporateelements linking them with the stars. Thus falling star,'6 fallen shot star,'8spittle of the stars,19 star blubber,20 star fallen,21 star-falling,22 star,"7 star star star star and jelly,23 shot,24 slime,25 star slough,26 star slubber,27 slutch,28 starnfall.29 Of these, star slime has a claim to be the oldest, being representedby sterre slyme in and the slyme of sterresin 1471.32 stern slyme in 1483,"3 1440,30 By combining the geographicallocations of these names (mostly taken from dialect dictionaries and local glossaries) with those of reported occurrences of star jelly, a rough minimum estimate can be obtained of the past distributionof the belief within the British Isles. Localities so far listed (by pre-1974 counties) are as follows: England: Cheshire,33 Cornwall,34 Cumberland,35Leicestershire,36Lincolnshire,37 Yorkshire.40 Northamptonshire,38 Westmorland,39 Wales: Cardiganshire,"' Pembrokeshire,42 Brecknockshire.4 Scotland:Caithness,44 Forfarshire,45Perthshire46 Ireland:Antrim,47 Donegal.49 Derry,48 Traditional belief in jelly from the stars was also held widely on the continent of but Europe. There are early recordsfrom France,s50 the only modernterm given in the dictionarieswe have consulted is crachats lune,the one case so far of the moon being de implicated. The Belgian peasants believed in it,5' and it was widespread in the

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Teutonic countriesof northernEurope. Germanevidenceis plentiful. In their Deutsches Wdrterbuch Grimmmentionthe jellyas Sternschnuppe, (1854-)the brothers also givinga varietyof otherfolk-names,52 while in the discussions naturalists of the book-name seems to Namesequivalent 'starshot'are Meteorgallerte to be favoured.53 also foundin Dutch, Danishand Swedish,as well as in West Frisianand Middle Dutch.4 ser 'rot AmongWelsh-speaking peoplethe termspwdre andpydruser55 (roughly of the stars')are used, and indeedhavebecomebook-names Englishfor the various in typesof jelly. Lastly,showingthat the idea is not confinedto WesternEuropeand people of stockin the UnitedStates,Francis European Huxleywastold in the 1950sby one of the UrubuIndians Brazil of howthestarssometime become detached fromthe skyand fallto earth,andthathe himselfhadcomeacross in the jungleas a softblue jellyone likeobject.56 It appears a number different that of natural objectshavebeentakenfor starjelly, the only commonfeaturebeing their gelatinous A consistency. frequently reported and of typeis colourless of animal origin,beingformed the unlaideggsof frogswhich havebeeneatenby birdsof prey.The mucilaginous masses eitherdisgorged are or egg to mass rejected the birds,andthentakeup water swellintoa whitishtranslucent of by with blackspots representing undeveloped the jelly, sometimes eggs, as found by RobertFludd.5 In booksor articlesmentioning jelly this explanation often star has beenassumed be the only one. to Another substance sometimes takenforstarjellyis the primitive which plantNostoc, knownas the blue-green belongsto the groupof organisms algae(though no means by alwaysblue-greenin colour),and forms rubberymassesof jelly, generallyof a or greenish-brown purplishcolour.It often growson sandysoil, and on lawns,and shrivels insignificance dryweather, to in to swellingagainrapidly full size afterrain.58 The Norfolknaturalist A. Ellis has told us that in his experience apparent E. the suddenappearance Nostoc of plantsafterrain,whichhavenot beennoticedin the dry causessurprise, while the botanistWorthington Smithwrotein state,frequently G. 1910 thathe had heardboth Nostoc and the gelatinous Tremella 'associated fungus with fallenstarsamongrustics.'59 Dr. Ellis also said that members of the slime-mouldgroup of plants or whicharefungus-like oftenappear Myxomycetes, primitive organisms, mysteriously in autumn great in and that quantities, suggested theyalsocouldbe takenforstarjelly, an explanation put forward correspondents Naturein 1910. As already also to by Bolamhada funguspointed to himas starjelly,whilethebuffout mentioned, George coloured in objectfoundby RufusGraves Massachusetts havebeena fungusor a may slime-mould. Threeothersubstances whichhavebeenimplicated shouldbe mentioned. Jamieson strandedjellyfishare often called 'fallen stars,' while AdmiralSmyth'sSailor's Wordbook gives 'fallenstar'for a jellyfish.60 also ThomasPennant 1768wasof the in opinionthatstarjellywasnothingmorethanthe half-digested remains earthworms of regurgitated birds.6' to by reduced a to Lastly,the jellyhas beenattributed 'potatoes
in his Etymological Dictionaryof the Scottish Tongue (second edition, 1880) states that

pulp by frost.'62 Star jelly does not appearto have been mentioned by the classicalauthors,but from medieval times onward attempted explanationshave usually related its productionto the Ptolemaic cosmology. It was generallythought to have originatednot higher than

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the sublunary to sphere.The earliestreference this we have come acrossis in a attributed the Venerable to in Bede,but whichprobably manuscript originated the southof France the 11th or 12th in Hereit is statedthatsparks produced century.63 fromthe collisionof rushing windsappear fallingstarsas theydropto earth,but like are extinguished the dampair, and then maybe foundas poisonous by phlegm-like massesin fields. Instead the collisionof windsgenerating of held shootingstars,manylaterwriters that they originated fromdry vapoursfromthe earthdrawnup by the sun. In the sublunary layerof purefire abovethe earth'satmosphere ignitedand fell back they afterwhich they blazing,only to be extinguished againby the dampatmosphere, arrived the earthas masses jelly.Thesevapours on of wereknownin Latinas assub, a wordof Arabic a star Baconin the 13thcentury wrote originmeaning shooting (Roger of assub ascendens descendens),64 this termwasalsoapplied starjelly,as in the et and to wordbooksof 1440and 1483already mentioned.65 The sameascending descending and in Mirrour the fieryvapours appear Caxton's of World of French on (1480),a prosetranslation Gossouin's poemof c. 1245.In a chapter starshe writes: shooting
This ayerin whichis no maner it unto this moisture, stratcheth themone.Andtheris seeneofteunder ayer sommesparkles fyre,andsemethatthey weresterres. whichmensaytheybe sterres of Of whichgoone and fro of in rennyng, thattheyremeue theirplaces.Buttheybe none;but it is a maner fyrethatgroweth of whichhathno moisture withinit, whichis of therth; thereof and thayer somedryevapour groweth by the sonnewhichdraweth on hye;andwhanit is ouerhye, it fallethandis settea fyrelike as a candel it as and and of brennyng us semeth; afterfallethin thayer moyste, thereis quenchid the moistnes thayer. by Andwhenit is greteandthe ayerdrye,it comethal brennyng untotherth. Whereof happeth thatthey that saylleby the see or they thatgooneby londehauemanytimes it ofte founden seenthemal shynyng brenning untotherthe, whantheycomewhereit is fallen, and fall and and or that theyfindenoneotherthingbuta litil asshes likething,or likesomleefof a treerotten, wereweet.66

sir.'73

A similar mechanism postulated Robert was Fluddin the early17thcentury67 and by as by ThomasWhitein 1656,68andwasevenput forward Chauvin lateas 1692.69 by A secondtheory the production starjellywassuggested the 16thcentury for of in by who held that it was not derivedfrom earthlyvapours,but was an Paracelsus, excrementthrown off from the fixed stars in purifyingthemselves."7 This was ridiculed the Cambridge Platonist by HenryMore(1662),whowrotethatParacelsus has 'givenoccasionto the wildestPhilosophick Enthusiasms ever wereyet on that that in did with foot.'7'It is possible,however, the hypothesis question not originate Paracelsus embodiedan ancientfolk-belief, but since the Welsh farmerof whom GeorgeBolamwrote7 spoke of a 'cleaningof the stars,'and even this centurya of to Cornishman, speaking the jelly,was reported havesaid"tis shit fromthe stars,

we call a falling star, a kind of gelly or slime found oftentimesin the Summer in fields of Paracelsus),also published in 1650, the translator,Walter Charleton,physician to Charles I, is more sceptical. In a note, he writes:

actualdefinition thistermby Paracelsus, haveotherauthors of nor but consulted, in a to in the 'Nostochis thatwhich glossary his works published 1650appears following:andmeadows.'75 a translation the worksof the chemist In of VanHelmont follower (a

name of the jelly-likealgal plant mentioned above.74 have been unable to find an We

A wordforstarjellyreputedly coined Paracelsus, whichappears and several times by in his collected is has the works, 'nostoch,' which,as Nostoc, become botanical generic

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Nostoch understandeth the nocturnall pollution of some plethoricall and wanton starre, or rather excrement blown from the nostrills of some rheumatickplanet, falling on spacious plains, fields and sheep pastures, of an obscure red or brown tawny, in consistence like a gelly, and so trembling if touched; which the philosophy of the clouted (i.e. hobnailed) shooe affirms to be the ruines of a star fallen.76

The description of the colour and consistency leaves no doubt that the alga now nown as Nostoc commune is intended, as in other cases where a red, brown, purple or green tint is mentioned. An uncoloured variety of jelly may also be referredto in the same work, for in the body of the text Van Helmont wrote of 'a Viscid Mucilage descending, which is called Sperma Siderum, the seminal emission of the stars.'77 Early chemists were naturally intrigued by such a mysterious extra-terrestrial substance (or group of substances) as star jelly, and hoped that it would have correspondinglyextraordinary properties.Probablythere would be much of interest in the literaturefor someone with better Latin than ours, but here a few examples must suffice. 'The Slyme of Sterresthat falleth to the Grownde'is included as an alchemical ingredient in Sir George Ripley's poem 'The Compound of Alchemy,' written in 1471.78 FrancisBacon, Lord Verulam,in a letter to Prince Henry, mentioned 'starshot jelly and other such magical ingredients.'79Abraham de la Pryme, a Yorkshire and wrote in antiquary,gatheredit in 1701-2 to send to his friend Sir Hans Sloane,80 the accompanyingletter 'the ingenious Borellus'8tells us how mightily the chemists prize it, pretending that they can draw an insipid menstruum therefrom that shall radicallydissolve gold, and I rememberthat, when I learned that noble science with Seignior Vigani,82he preached us a whole lecture on the virtues of this wonderful substance.' The French botanist Geoffroy wrote in 1708 of 'Le Nostoch de Paracelse, qu'il nomme ausi quelquefois caerefolium,caeli flos, caeli folium,' and went on to say that the peasantsof Germanyused it to make the hair grow, that they believed it was very good for cancersand fistulas, and also that chemists imaginedthat it containedthe universal spirit, and drew from it a sweet spirit, which they believed would be a general solvent for gold.83 Even the new breed of scientist, in the early days of the Royal Society, was unwilling to discredit it entirely. Thus the Honourable Robert Boyle, who was under no misapprehensionsabout its celestial origin, wrote in 1661:
And I remember,I have seen a good quantity of that jelly, that is sometimes found upon the ground, and by the vulgar called a star-shoot,as if it remainedupon the extinction of a falling star, which being brought to an eminent physician of my acquaintance,he lightly digested it in a well-stopt glass for a long time, and by that means alone resolved it into a permanentliquor, which he extols as a specifick to be outwardlyapplied against wens.84

It fell to Boyle's colleague in the Royal Society, Dr. ChristopherMerrett, to make the first investigationof star jelly in the new spirit of scientific scepticism. As Thomas Birch reportsin his History of the Royal Societyof one of the Society meetings in the 1660s:
Dr. Merrett produced some of the substance commonly called a Star-shoot.Some conceived, that it was a mucilaginous matter of a fungus, which the vulgar, seeing that meteor called a star-shoot, and running to the place, where they think it fell down, and where easily they meet with this matter, judge it to be the starshoot itself. Others were of the opinion, that it might be some spermatic matter of rams copulating with ewes, and that it was not probable,that it could be a dissolution of a fungus, since it was much found upon hills and downs, where no fungus's are. Others thought, that it might be frogs dissolved, especially since sometimes bones were found in it. It was observed, that this substance was commonly found in Wiltshire, and that it appeared commonly after the first rains in autumn. Dr. Merrett remarked,that it would not dissolve by boiling in water. He was desired to procure some quantity of it, and to make experimentsupon it, to see whether he could discover it to be an animal or a vegetable substance.85

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Dr. Merrett report did in back,as he related his bookPinax(1667),andapparently demonstrated that of successfully this particular wasthe remains frogs,which,he jelly said,hadbeenconsumed crowssittingroundin a group."6 by Muchthe sameconclusion reached JohnMorton,in TheNaturalHistory was of by various Northamptonshire (1712).Apartfromboilingit andperforming experiments, he madea careful of examination it anddetected bloodvessels,bloodclotsandpieces of skin, whichhe took as clearevidenceof the interaction birdsand frogs. 'The of above-recited observations' writes,'whichhavebeencarefully he made,andaretruly that the star gelly related,will by no meansadmit of either of these hypotheses, descends of the air,whichis the opinionof some,or thatit springs of theearth, out out which othershave imagin'd.'Unwillingto deny it any virtuesat all, however,he further to heelsof horses,it hasbeenfoundto be of use, reports 'applied the running alsofor pasting to Pastboard, Glassandthe like.'87 paper John Morton'sreportmore or less concludesthe enquiryinto the natureof the animalvariants starjelly,exceptthata succession laterinvestigators asked of of have the same questionsand come to the same conclusions,the most recentoccasion beliefamong educated theastral the in being1926.88 originof the apparently Similarly, fadedwith the riseof modern plantNostoc botanyat the closeof the 17thcentury. That belief in jelly from the starswas widespread amongliteratepeople in this as is of someof country well as among'rustics' attested a variety literary references, by them quiteoblique.89 lines in KingLear,'Out,vile jelly!Whereis Thus, Cornwall's makereference starjelly,especially to whencompared a with thy lustrenow?'90 clearly similar extract fromLovelace. to Referring the ageingLucasta's eyes, he writes:
By the gloriouslight Of boththosestars,of which,theirspheres bereft, Onlythe jelly'sleft.91

Of the snail,the sameauthorwrites:

Andin a Jellythee dissolve, Likea shot star,whichdothrepair and the Upward, rarifie Air.92

Thereareotherreferences Suckling: in
As he whosequicker dothtrace eye A falsestarshot to a mark't place, Andthinking to catch, it A gellyup do's snatch.93

And in Donne:
As he that sees a starre runsapace, fall, And findesa gellie in the place...94

and Cowley:
So starsappear dropto us fromSkie, to Andgild the passage they fly; as But whenthey fall, andmeetth'opposing ground, Whatbut a sordidslimeis found.95

216 and Dryden, writing of aerial spirits:

HILARY BELCHER AND ERICA SWALE

And lest our leap from the sky should prove too far, We slide on the back of a new-falling star, And drop from above In a jelly of love.96

and, as late as 1740, W. Somerville:

And like that falling Meteor, there she lyes, A Jelly cold on earth.97

There are also other references in plays, of which two more occur in works of Dryden-the notion seems quite to have takenhis fancy. 'When I had takenup what I supposed to be a fallen star, I found I had been cozened with a jelly'98 and 'The shooting starsend all in purple jellies'99 (obviouslyNostoc,by the colour). In Fletcher's TheFaithfulShepherdess line appears'No slough of falling Star did ever hit/Upon the this bank.' o Ending with Sir Walter Scott, whose belief in the idea as a boy has already been mentioned, in chapter 8 of The Talisman,the hermit remarks'Seek a falling star and thou shalt only light upon some foul jelly, which is shooting through the horizon, has assumed for a moment an appearanceof splendour.'101 The origin of our interest in star jelly was the chance reading of an entry in the ConciseOxfordDictionary,where Paracelsusand the stars are linked with the plant Nostoc, with which we are familiaras botanists. The strangeassociationthat came to light appearedto have been the subject of a varietyof short notes and letters published over several hundred years, but seemed to have been little studied in detail.'02 I am aware,however, in publishing this account, of some of the pitfalls awaitingthose who stray from scientific into literary fields. This essay could doubtless be extended in various ways, such as by following up the German literature,or the writings of the alchemists. The origins of such an intriguing belief, though, would seem to be deeply buried, possibly dating from very early times. Lucy CavendishCollege, Cambridge.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We wish to thank Charles Burnett, William Condry, Hilda Davidson, E. A. Ellis and the late Russell Wortley for supplying helpful comments and references.

NOTES 1. Frazer, J. G., The GoldenBough, abridged edition (London, 1922), p. 367. 2. Fludd, R., Opera, Vol. I, book 5. De Creaturis Coeli Aetheri, Chapter 1, 'De Corporis Stellaris Substantia, Natura et Dispositione,' (Oppenheim, 1677), pp. 126-127. 3. Hughes, T. M., 'Pwdre Ser,' Nature, 83 (1910), 492-494; 84 (1910), 171-172. 4. Scott, W., Footnote to Dryden, J. & Lee, N., Oedipus,in The Worksof John Dryden,illustrated with notesby Sir WalterScott, revisedand corrected George by Saintsbury(Edinburgh, 1882-93), Vol. VI, p. 159. 5. Hunt, R., Popular Romancesof the Westof England 3rd ed. (London, 1881), p. 423. 6. 'Hibernicus,' 'Star Slime,' Notes and Queries,Ser. 15, 174 (1938), 7-9. See also an anonymous article (possibly also written by Hibernicus) in The Times,November 1933, and subsequent correspondence.

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7. Lowell, J. R., quoted in Britten, J. Popular British Fungi (London, 1877), p. 83. 8. Schlesiger, F., 'PwdreSer,' Letter to Nature, 84 (1910), 105-106. 9. Free, E. E., 'Pwdre Ser,' Letter to Nature, 85 (1910), 6. This, the most accessible account of the event described, and the one most quoted, is at fourth hand, through Arago, F., 1821 ('Sur une Mati&re g6latineusetomb6e de l'Atmosphere,'Annal. de Chimie, 19 (1821), 67-69, where four other reputed falls of gelatinous materialare also mentioned, in 1416, 1548, 1718 and 1796), and an anonymous account in the Journal (5, 395-396) to the original, i.e. Graves, R., "Account of a Gelatinous EdinburghPhilosophical Meteor,' Amer.J. Sci., 2 (1820), 335-337. Here, the meteor as described seems to have behaved more like ball lightning, while the gelatinous mass appearedto resemble a fungus or a slime mould. An acquaintance of Rufus Graves, EdwardHitchcock, wrote some years later that Graves had shown to him a second object, said to resemble the first, and like it thought to represent the remains of a fallen meteor. Hitchcock recognised this as a fungus, and found more of the same type locally; Hitchcock, E., 'On the Meteors of 13th November, 1833,' Amer. J. Sci., 25 (1834), 354-363). 10. Olmsted, D., 'Observations on the Meteors of November 13th 1833,' Amer. J. Sci., 25 (1834), 363-411. 11. White, T., PeripateticallInstitutions in the way of that eminent Person and excellentPhilosopher KenelmDigby (London, 1656), p. 148. 12. Morton, J., TheNatural History of Northamptonshire (London, 1712), p. 353. 13. Bolam, G., WildLife in Wales(London, 1913), p. 387. 14. Vaughan, J. W., 'Nostoc,' Letter to Notes and Queries,Ser. 9, 5 (1900), 108. 15. Condry, W., The SnowdoniaNational Park (London, 1966), p. 76. 16. Lindley, J. and Moore, T., The Treasuryof Botany (London, 1866), p. 487. 17. Jamieson, J., An EtymologicalDictionaryof the ScottishLanguage,2nd ed. (Paisley, 1879-82). 18. Jamieson,op.cit.; The OxfordEnglish Dictionary(Oxford, 1884-1928). 19. White, as in note 11. 20. Wright, J., The English Dialect Dictionary(London, 1896-1905). 21. Condry, as in note 15. 22. Hunt, as in note 5. 23. Lindley and Moore, as in note 16; The OxfordEnglish Dictionary. 24. The Oxford English Dictionary; Boyle, R., Works,ed. T. Birch (London, 1744), Vol. I, p. 244; Johnson, S., A Dictionaryof the English Language(London, 1755). 25. The OxfordEnglishDictionary. 26. The OxfordEnglishDictionary;Lindley and Moore, as in note 16. 27. The OxfordEnglish Dictionary. 28. The OxfordEnglish Dictionary. 29. Wright, J., TheEnglish Dialect Dictionary. 30. Promptorium Parvulumsive Clericorum, lexiconAnglo-Latinum c. Princeps, 1440 (Early English Text Society reprint, London, 1908). 31. CatholiconAnglicum, an English-Latin Wordbook, 1483 (Early English Text Society reprint, c. London, 1881). 32. Ripley, G., The Compoundof Alchymie, 1471, reprinted in Ashmole, E., TheatrumChemicum Britannicarum(London, 1652), p. 191. 33. Anon, Letter to Gentleman's Magazine, 61 (1791), 467; Darlington, T., The Folk Speechof South Cheshire (English Dialect Society, London, 1887). 34. Hunt, as in note 5; 'Hibernicus,' as in note 6. 35. Dickinson, W., A Glossaryof Words and Phrasespertainingto the dialectof Cumberland, rearranged, illustratedand augmented Quotationsby E. W. Prevost(English Dialect Society, London, 1899). by 36. Watson, W., 'Leicestershire Plants,' Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 4? (1756), 860. 37. Peacock, E. A., A Glossaryof Wordsusedin the Wapentakes Manleyand Corringham, Lincolnshire of (English Dialect Society, London, 1879). 38. Morton, as in note 12. 39. Hughes, as in note 3. 40. Hutton, J., A tour to the Caves in the environs of Ingleborough Settle in the West Riding of and Yorkshire (1780), reprinted English Dialect Society, London, 1873); Dickinson, as in note 35. 41. Condry, W., in Litt., 1976. 42. Hughes, as in note 3. 43. Vaughan, J. W., 'Nostoc,' Letter to Notes and Queries,Ser. 9, 5 (1900), 108. 44. Wright, D. N., Manuscript collection of Caithness words, cited in The English Dialect Dictionary (Wright, J., London, 1896-1905) under 'Starn-fall.' 45. See note 17 (Jamieson)under 'Starn-fall.'

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46. Statistical Accountof Scotland,Vol. 19 (Edinburgh, 1797), p. 351. 47. McSkimin, S., History of Carrickfergus, 1812, cited by The OxfordEnglish Dictionaryunder 'shot star.' We have not seen this volume, and have been unable to find the passage quoted in the 2nd edition (Belfast, 1823). 48. Britten, J. and Holland, R. A., Dictionaryof English Plant-names(London, 1886). 49. Britten and Holland, as in note 48. 50. Migne, J. P., ed., Patrologia, Vol. 90 (Paris, 1860), column 888a, 'Bedae presbyteri: De mundi coelestis terrestrisqueconstitutione liber.' Though attributedto Bede, this text probablyoriginated in the south of France in the I Ith or 12th century. See also Caxton, W., Mirrourof the World(London, 1480, reprintedEarly English Text Society, London, 1913), Chapter 30, 'Of the fyre and of the sterresthat seme to fall;' this is a prose translationof a French poem by Gossouin, c. 1245. George Sandys, in a commentary and in upon Ovid, seems to hold a similar view (Ovid's Metamorphosis englished, mythologised represented figures, Oxford, 1632, p. 68): 'He resembles Phaetons fall to a falling starre, or that seemes to fall, which was timely added; although these fires which dart by night through the aire are so called. For one starre would overwhelme the whole earth; which in his own nature is waightlesse, and not subject to descend. These Meteors are round and compacted exhalations; which inflamed aloft, are strooke downe by the aeriall cold; and carry the name of starres, in that they resemble them both in forme and splendor; whose sloughs accordingto the vulgar receipt, we see often to ly on the ground like gelly.' For the modern French, see Littre, E., Dictionnairede la Languefrancaise(Paris, 1957) under 'Nostoc.' See also Lund, T. W. G., 'The Algae of the Malham Tarn District,' Field Studies 1 (1961), 85-119. 51. Hunt, as in note 5. 52. Grimm, J., and Grimm, W., DeutschesWorterbuch, Vol. 10, 2nd division, 2nd part (Leipzig, 1941) under Sternschnuppe. 53. Melsheimer, D. M., Jber.westf,ProvVer. Wiss.Kunst,36 (1908), 53-55. 54. OxfordEnglishDictionary,under 'star-shot.'Names also exist in Scandinavianlanguagesimplying a celestial origin without implicating stars, such as Danish Skyfald (see Petersen, J. B., 'Studies on the biology and taxonomy of soil algae,' Dansk bot.Arkiv, 8 (9), 1935, 1-80, and Swedish Skyfall (see Linnaeus, C., Flora Suecica, Stockholm, 1745). 55. For pwdreser, see Hughes, as in note 3; for pydru ser, see Condry, as in note 15. 56. Huxley, F., AffableSavages(London, 1956), p. 211. In parts of India it is also believed that Nostoc falls from heaven; see Smith, J., Bible Plants (London, 1878), p. 229. 57. As in note 2. 58. Britten, J., Popular British Fungi (London, 1877), p. 83; Harvey, W., Nereis Boreali-Americani, Vol. I (Washington, 1851), p. 18; Petersen, and Linnaeus, as in note 54. 59. Smith, W. G., in litt., quoted by Hughes, T. M., 'PwdreSer,' Letter to Nature, 84 (1910), 171. H. A. Bayliss, in a letter to The Times(November 30, 1933) says that only the star jelly which is green is Nostoc. However, Nostoc is far more often yellow, brown, purplish or a tawny olive than clear green. 60. Jamieson, as in note 17, under 'fallen stars;' Smyth,W., The Sailor's Word-Book (London, 1867) under 'fallen-star.'Also compare the statement of Paracelsusthat star-shotfalling on the sea gives rise to flounders (Paracelsus, CollectedWorks,ed. Huser, J., Basel, 1859-91, Vol. I, part 3, p. 87, De Pestilitate). 61. Pennant, T., British Zoology(London, 1768), Vol. II, p. 243. 62. Statistical Accountof Scotland,Vol. 19 (Edinburgh, 1797), p. 351. 63. Migne, J. P., ed., PatrologiaVol. 90 (Paris, 1860), col. 888a, 'Bedae presbyteri:De mundi coelestis terrestrisqueconstitutione liber.' 64. Bacon, R., Opusmajus(Paris, about 1266), 'Impressiones,inflammatein aere et vaporibusignitis in similitudinem stellarum, quae vocantur Arabice assub ascendens et descendens, sunt corpora parve quantitatis.' 65. See notes 30 and 31. 66. See note 50. 67. See note 2. 68. See note 11. 69. Chauvin, S., Lexicon rationalesive Thesaurus (Rotterdam, 1692), under stella cadens. philosophicus There are no page numbers. 70. Paracelsus, P. A. T., Collected Works, ed. J. Huser (Basel, 1589-91), Vol. VIII, p. 246, De exhalationibus. believed that in some cases fallen star jelly could give rise to epidemics (see note 60, De He Pestilitate, p. 574), thus anticipating the ideas of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe(Evolutionfrom Space, London, 1981). 71. More, H., Enthusiasmus triumphatus (London, 1662), Section 45, p. 31, 'A particularcollection out of Paracelsus.' 'That the Stars eat and are nourished, and therefore must ease themselves, and that those falling Stars, as some call thlem,which are found on the earth in the form of a trembling Gelly, are their

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excrement.' In spite of such scepticism Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of 1755 defines 'starshoot' as 'an emission from a star,' while the first edition of Jamieson'sEtymological Dictionaryof the ScottishLanguage (Edinburgh, 1808) gives 'Shot-star.The name given to that meteoric substanceoften seen to shoot through the atmosphere, or appearing in a gelatinous form on the ground.' This definition did not appear in the second edition of 1879-82, being replaced by a more up-to-dateone. 72. See note 13. 73. See note 6. 74. For a description of the plant Nostoc see West, G. S., and Fritsch, F. E., British Freshwater Algae (Cambridge, 1927). 75. French, J. A., A new light of Alchymie,and a Treatiseof Sulphur, by MichaelSandivogius,also nine booksof the Nature of thingsby Paracelsus.Also a ChymicalDictionaryexplaininghard Placesand Words in Paracelsus(London, 1650). French's definition seems to be a simplified version of that given by Martin Ruland the elder (A Lexiconof Alchemy,1612, translatedby A. E. Waite, London, 1893): 'Nostoch-a Ray or Radiationof a certain Star, or its offscouring, superfluity, etc., cast on earth. It falls, chiefly duringJune, July and August, upon broadfields or meadows, being like a large fungus or sponge in appearance,and of a yellow or dark tawny colour, like a coagulated juice, and to the touch like a jelly.' W. Johnson's Lexicon Chymicum (Frankfurt,1678) gives a similar definition. Paracelsusbelieved in both fiery and cold stars. The excrement thrown off by the cold stars was colourless, while that of the hot ones was like red or yellowcoloured frog-spawn (De exhalationibus.See note 70). He did not state whether he equated only the coloured star-shotwith Nostoch, but elsewhere he wrote 'Things which come from fire and are of a warm nature-warm Nostoch. (Hermetic AlchemicalWritings, A. E. Waite, London, 1894, Vol. 2, p. 194), and ed., thus leaving open the possibility of cold (and therefore colourless) nostoc. 76. Charleton, W., A Ternaryof Paradoxes(London, 1650), p. 98. 77. Ibid., p. 24. 78. As in note 32. 79. Cited by de la Pryme (see next note). 80. The Diary of Abrahamde la Pryme (Surtees Society). p. 247. 81. PresumablyGiovanni Alfonso Borelli, 1608-1679, Italian physiologist and physicist. We have been unable to find any mention of star jelly in his works. 82. John Francis Vigani, c. 1650-1713, Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge 1703-1713. His only extant publication is MedullaChymiae(Danzig, 1682), a small volume in which there is no mention of star jelly. A cabinet of materials illustrating his lectures exists at Queens' College, Cambridge, and was cataloguedby R. T. Gunther (EarlySciencein Cambridge, Oxford, 1937, p. 473), but none of this materialis present. 83, Geoffroy, M., 'Observations sur le Nostoch, qui prouvent que c'est veritablement une Plante,' Histoirede l'AcadimieRoyaledesSciences,1708, 228-230 (no volume no.). The caelifoliummentioned here is de presumbablyidentical with celefoli,defined by Paracelsusas materiamucillaginosa stellisand employed by him in a recipe for pills to cure erisypelas (CollectedWorks,see note 70, vol. 6, part 2, p. 574). 84. Boyle, R., Works,ed. T. Birch (London, 1744), Vol. I, p. 244. 85. Birch, T., History of the Royal Society(London, 1756), Vol. I, p. 482. 86. Merrett, C., Pinax: Rerum naturaliumBritannicarum,continensVegetabilia, Animalia et Fossilia in hac Insula repertainchoatus,1667. 87. See note 12. 88. Bayliss, H. A., 'PwdreSer (the rot of the stars).' Letter to Nature, 118 (1926), 552. 89. 'Hibernicus,' 'Star Slime,' Notes and Queries, Ser. 10, 174 (1938), 7-9, gives various literary references additional to those we have quoted, but they are poorly documented. 90. Shakespeare,W., King Lear, act 3, scene 7. 91. Lovelace, R., Sonnet, to Lucasta (London, 1649). 92. Lovelace, R., The Snayl (London, 1659). 93. Suckling, J., Farewellto Love (London, 1646). 95. Donne, J., Epithalamion. 95. Cowley, A., Reason(London, 1656). 96. Dryden, J., TyrannicLove (London, 1670), act 4, scene 1. There is a musical setting of this by Henry Purcell. 97. Somervile, W., Hobbinol, or the Rural Games, 3rd edition (London, 1740). The person being compared to the falling star in this burlesque is Tabitha, who is leading the field in a race run by village girls, but who then collapses. Another humorous reference is by Charles Lamb, in his essay on Roast Pig-'he hath wept out his pretty eyes-radiant jellies--shooting stars-' (Essays of Elia, London, 1823). 98. Dryden, TheSpanishFriar (London, 1679), dedication. (Collected Works,edited by Sir Walter Scott, revised G. Saintsbury, Edinburgh, 1883, Vol. VI, p. 404.)

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99. Dryden, J. and Lee, N., Oedipus(London, 1678-9), act 2, scene 1. (CollectedWorksas note 98, volume VI, p. 159). 100. Fletcher, J., The Faithful Shepherdess (London, 1609), act 3, scene 1. 101. Scott, W., The Talisman(Edinburgh, 1825), chapter 8. 102. Various articles and correspondences exist in addition to those cited above, for the most part containing little new material. These include Arber, A., 'Dryden and Cowley: "Star-slime",' Letter to Times Literary Supplement,June 7th 1957; Corliss, W. R., The Unexplained-A Sourcebook Strange of Phenomena,New York, 1976; Meaden, G. T., 'Mysterious fall of Pwdr Ser in Cambridge on 23rd June December 1978, 312-316; Phipson, T., Chapter in Phosphorescence, 1978,'-J. Meteorol., Trowbridge, London, 1862; and correspondencein Gentleman's Magazine, 1775, 1776, 1779, 1791, Notes and Queries, 1855, 1885, 1900, and The Times, November and December 1933.