Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/104

96 tails," and cocks'-plumes." The last two are of great importance as they are the almost invariable precursors of tropical hurricanes.

The history of the word cirrus, which is now applied to hairy clouds, affords an extraordinary illustration of the persistency of the same ideas in men's minds in different ages. Cirrus was first used about fifty years ago by Mr. Luke Howard, a Quaker, to whom any name connected with heathen mythology was specially distasteful. Still, when looking about for a word for this cloud structure, he selected the



Fig. 1.—Mares' Tails: a form of Cirrus. From a Photograph by Osti of Upsala.

Latin word cirrus or a curl of hair, little knowing that he was reproducing exactly the same idea as suggested the Chimæra and other mythological monsters.

Another form of cirrus takes rather the form of long lines than of hairy wisps.

The example now before you is from the tropics, and here we see a line of cirrus over the top of a fine rocky cumulus, while in this picture yon see cirrus-stripes taken near Dover, which do not converge because they are not seen end on.