Yet its name is often spoken, and it is a
conspicuous object if one knows when and where to look for it, and
when well seen it exhibits a mystical beauty which at the same time
charms and awes the beholder. It is called ``The Zodiacal Light,''
because it lies within the broad circle of the Zodiac, marking the
sun's apparent annual path through the stars. What it is nobody has
yet been able to find out with certainty, and books on astronomy
usually speak of it with singular reserve. But it has given rise to
many remarkable theories, and a true explanation of it would probably
throw light on a great many other celestial mysteries. The Milky Way
is a more wonderful object to look upon, but its nature can be
comprehended, while there is a sort of uncanniness about the Zodiacal
Light which immediately impresses one upon seeing it, for its part in
the great scheme of extra-terrestrial affairs is not evident.
If you are out-of-doors soon after sunset -- say, on an evening late
in the month of February -- you may perceive, just after the angry
flush of the dying winter's day has faded from the sky, a pale ghostly
presence rising above the place where the sun went down. The writer
remembers from boyhood the first time it was pointed out to him and
the unearthly impression that it made, so that he afterward avoided
being out alone at night, fearful of seeing the spectral thing again.
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