Abstract

Every 33 years, when Comet Tempel-Tuttle returns into the inner Solar system, the Earth crosses the most compact part of its dust swarm and this sometimes causes a heavy meteor shower. This paper investigates two legends of the Semites and tries to prove their connection with the `stars shower'. The first legend, connected with the history of the Arabs, tells about the miraculous rescue of Mecca when f/locks of birds dropped small stones on the army of Abraha and masses of his warriors died. The second legend, connected with the history of the Jews, says that the seventh plague which God sent on Egypt at the behest of Moses was a heavy fall of hail. In this paper we argue that the `stars shower' of the Leonid meteor stream was responsible for the two phenomena observed in those two legends, and this happened respectively on 569 AD October 8th and 1226 BC August 15th.