JSTRONOMT of the BRAHMINS. 139 



kfelf with the calculation of certain changes in the heavens, 

 particularly of the eclipfes of the fun and moon, and with the 

 rules and tables by which thefe calculations muft be performed. 

 The Brahmin, feating himfelf on the ground, and arranging 

 his (liells before him, repeats the enigmatical verfes that are to 

 guide his calculation, and from his little tablets of palm leaves, 

 takes out the numbers that are to be employed in it. He ob- 

 tains his refult with wonderful certainty and expedition ; but 

 having little knowledge of the principles on which his 

 rules are founded, and no anxiety to be better informed, he is 

 perfeiflly fatisfied, if, as it ufually happens, the commencement 

 and duration of the eclipfe anfwer, within a few minutes, to 

 his predl(5lion. Beyond this his aftronomical enquiries never 

 extend ; and his obfervations, when he makes any, go no far- 

 ther than to determine the meridian line, or the length of the 

 day, at the place where he obferves. 



The objects, therefore, which this aftronomy prefents to us, 

 are principally three, i. Tables and rules for calculating the 

 places of the fun and moon : 2. Tables and rules for calcu- 

 lating the places of the planets : 3. Rules by which the phafes 

 of eclipfes are determined. Though it is chiefly to the firfl of 

 thefe that our attention at prefent is to be direfled, the two laft 

 will alfo furnifh us with fome ufeful obfervations. 



6. The Brahmins, like all other Aftronomers, have diftin- 

 guilhed from the reft of the heavens, that portion of them, 

 through which the fun, moon and planets continually circulate. 

 They divide this fpace, which we call the zodiac, into twenty- 

 feven equal parts, each marked by a group of ftars, or a con- 

 ftellation*. This divifion of the zodiac is extremely natural 

 in the infancy of aftronomical obfervation ; becaufe the moon 

 completes her circle among the fixed Itars, nearly in twenty- 

 feven days, and fo makes an adlual divifion of that circle 



f 2 into 



• Mem. fur I'Aftronomie des Indiens, par M. l" Gemtil, H'ft. de "Acad des 

 Scien. 1772, U. P. 207. The phrale which we here trauUate conjletlations, fignifie? 

 the places of the moon in the twelve Jigns. 



