THE ASTRONOMER ROYAL AND THE SHAH 265 



hand, begins just when the Emperor chooses to say it 

 shall. He is like the captain of a ship, who says of the 

 hour, " Make it so," and it is so. With great ceremony 

 he issues a calendar ten months in advance, fixing as he 

 pleases all the important festive and lucky days of the 

 year. Various emperors have made New Year's Day in 

 the fourth, third, second, first, or twelfth month. It has 

 now been fixed for many centuries in the second astro- 

 nomical month. I have mentioned above that the ancient 

 Greeks reckoned the New Year as beginning about the 

 end of September. But the reckoning differed in the 

 different States, and so did the names of the months. 

 Although the Greek astronomers determined the real solar 

 year with remarkable accuracy, and proposed very clever 

 modes of correcting the calendar so as to use the lunar 

 months in reckoning, there was no general system 

 adopted, no agreement among the " home-ruling " States. 

 I have stated above that the official Chinese astronomers 

 sometimes get their heads cut off for not correctly fore- 

 telling an eclipse. Illustrating this there is the following 

 story of a visit paid about forty years ago to the Observa- 

 tory in Greenwich Park by the Shah of Persia of that 

 date. The Persians have many close links with the 

 Chinese, and share their view of astronomy as a sort of 

 State function, in which the Emperor has special authority. 

 The Shah accordingly made a great point of visiting the 

 British State observatory, in company with King Edward, 

 who was then Prince of Wales. Sir George Airy was the 

 Astronomer Royal, and showed the party over the build- 

 ing and gave them peeps through telescopes. " Now show 

 me an eclipse of the sun," said the Shah, speaking in 

 French. Sir George pretended not to hear, and led the 

 way to another instrument. " Dog of an astronomer," 

 said the Shah, " produce me an eclipse ! " Sir George 

 politely said he had not got one and could not oblige the 



