54 Major Price’s Extracts from the Mualijat-i-Ddra Shekohi. 
like a skillet or skimming-dish, but thinner, and of different sizes, large 
and small, which they keep suspended for use. 
By the philosophers of Hind, the day and night have been divided each 
into four portions, denominated Pahar,* in the generality of places of not 
more than nine, nor less than six Gharies duration. The Ghari is the six- 
tieth part of the day and night; which sixtieth part is further divided into 
sixty other parts, called Pal,t and the latter again subdivided into sixty 
more, called Bebal.t 
In order, however, to obtain some medium through which to calculate 
the progress of time, they contrived a vessel of brass, or some other metal, 
of the precise weight of one hundred ¢dngahs,|| to which vessel they give 
in Persian the name of Pankdn,{ for thus sings the philosophical poet 
Sennai; ‘“ Wherefore shouldst thou abide in a world which has for its mea- 
sure a paltry Pankdn.” In shape this is like a cup, narrowest at the 
bottom, twelve fingers deep, and as many wide at top, and perforated at 
the bottom so as to admit of the passage of a gold wire or probe, of the 
weight of one mash, and five fingers in length. This cup they place in a 
pan of clear water, where it may be inaccessible to wind, or any thing else 
that can disturb or put it in motion; and thus, when the cup through the 
orifice at bottom has admitted water to the brim, they reckon that a Ghari 
has elapsed.** 
Further, these philosophers have determined, that a man in health makes 
three hundred and sixty respirations in a Ghari of tme. Six such respi- 
rations, therefore, must equal a Pal, or the sixtieth part of a Ghari; and in 
the course of the twenty-four hours, a man in health will have made twenty- 
one thousand six hundred respirations. 
* xe ‘pei ¥ de 
nese § wie q Cle 
** This latter article can be no other than the clepsydra, or simple water-clock, anciently 
employed for the measurement of time ; and with these explanations it will be easy to compre- 
hend what is indicated by the strokes alternately slow and rapid, given to his gong by the 
sentinel at an Indian darbér. Thus two or three strokes given slowly indicate the second 
or third pahar ; one to six or nine strokes, given more rapidly, mark the gharies ; and from one 
to sixty strokes, still more rapidly, indicate the number of pals which have expired of the 
ghari. It may be necessary to add that a ghart appears to be exactly twenty-four minutes. 
