BENARES. 171 
and fruits it contains; and if He had not enlightened the dark path 
of the elements with the torches of the fixed stars, the planets, and 
the resplendent sun and moon, how could it have been possible to have 
arrived at the end of our wishes, or to escape from the labyrinth and 
the precipices of ignorance? 
.. * From inability to comprehend the all-pervading ' laters of this 
power, Hipparchus is an ignorant clown, who wrings the hands of 
vexation; and in the contemplation of this exalted iii Ptolemy is 
a bat, wlio can never arrive at the sun of truth," &c. 
Allthis is very sage, but his earthly king must come in for a share 
of flattery, more fulsome and less neatly worded than the above, but 
still so good a specimen of oriental hyperbole, that I shall give it. 
Having found that the old tables did not tally with the astronomical 
observations, whether European, Asiatie, or Hindu, Jey-sing proceeded 
to inform the Emperor of the fact, and thus prefaced his request :— 
* Seeing that very important affairs of religion and administration 
depend on these (tables), and that in the rising and setting of the 
planets and seasons of eclipses of the sun and moon, much disagree- _ 
ment was found to exist, he (the author) represents it to His Majesty 
of dignity and power, the sun of the firmament of felicity and domi- 
nion, the splendour of the forehead of imperial magnificence, the 
nrivalled pearl of the sea of sovereignty, the incomparably brightest 
star of the firmament and of empire, whose standard is the sun, whose 
retinue the moon, whose lance is Mars, and his pen like Mercury, with 
attendants like Venus, whose threshold is the sky, whose signet is 
Jupiter, whose sentinel is Saturn ; the Emperor descended from a long 
race of kings, an Alexander in dignity, the shadow of God, the vic- 
torious king—Manommep Smau—may he be ever triumphant in 
battle," &e. 
The Emperor’s commands being thus sought and obtained, it be- 
hoved Jey-Sing to set about his work, which demanded the building of 
observatories—a mighty task, contemplated by no previous Rajah, 
since the time of the Martyr-prince, Mirza Uleya Beg (“whose sins 
are forgiven”), and to the prosecution of which he ** bound the girdle 
of resolution round the loins of his soul," and constructed instruments 
of his own invention, of perfect stability of stem and limb, including a 
Semrat-yunta, the ** semi-diameter of which was eighteen cubits, and 
one minute on it a barley-corn and a half." In short, he completed 
z 2? 
