Travels into Bokhara

Burnes, Alexander: Burnes, Alexander, 1839
s1Picasso, Fabio: "Ignis Fatuus or Spook Lights Indus River March 17, 1832", Magonia Exchange, 24 mai 2007
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n117 mars 1832

Before crossing the Indus, we observed a singular phenomenon at the fork of the Indus and Cabool river, where an ignis fattus shows itself every evening. Two, three, and even four bright lights are visible at a time, and continue to shine throughout the night, ranging within a few yards of each other. The natives could not account for them, and their continuance during the rainy season is the most inexplicable part of the phenomenon, in their estimation. They tell you, that the valiant Man Sing, a Rajpoot, who carried his war of revenge against the Mahommedans across the Indus, fought a battle in this spot; and that the lights now seen are the spirits of the departed. I should not have credited the constancy of this "will-o'-the-wisp," had I not seen it. It may arise from the reflection of the water on the rock, smoothed by the current; but then it only shows itself on a particular spot, and the whole bank is smoothed. It may also be an exhalation of some gas from a fissure in the rock; but its position prevented our examining it.