338 



♦ KNOWLEDGE • 



[Nov. 30, 1883. 



Damoiseau's " Tables of Jupiter's Satellites " for an explanation of 

 the discordance between the predicted and observed times of their 

 phenomena. Since the publication of those tables — forty-seven 

 years ago — ample materials have accumulated for the calculation 

 of fresh ones, if the Government would only find the comparatively 

 small sum needful for that purpose. They might begin by grant- 

 ing the amount annually wasted on the wretched little quack 

 " Committee on Solar Physics," at South Kensington, for this 

 audable purpose. Willum Noble. 



Forest Lodge, Maresfield, Uckfield, Nov. 23, 1883. 



" STRANGE PHENOMENON." 

 [1028] — In your issue of Nov. 23rd, I notice " Major ab 

 Adversis " gives an extract from a private letter dated Kurra- 

 chee, Oct. 1-lth, concerning a brilliant glow after sunset. Perhaps 

 in connection with this the following, received by tlie last Cape 

 Mail from a friend residing in the Karoo district, near Graaff 

 Reinet, may also be of interest to your readers. 



" Oct. 21st. — Many of us out here are much interested in a very 

 peculiar light visible in the west nearly every evening about an 

 hour after sunset. It lasts until quite dusk, and throws a sort of 

 lurid glare over ever^'thing, and the sky is angrily red. I have not 

 seen anything about it in the papers, but the people were very full 

 of it in Graaff Keinet. It is now about a month since we first 

 noticed it." M. C.irev-Hobson. 



BIRTH AND GROWTH OF MYTH. 



[1029]— In Vol. IV., No. 103, of Knowledge, Mr. E. Clodd, in his 

 seventeenth paper on this subject, quotes the tale of Llewellyn and 

 his faithful hound Gellert, which he classes as a fabulous legend ; 

 though, if we may believe an anecdote related by Ferishta, the 

 Persian historian, who lived in the sixteenth and seventeenth 

 centuries, and chronicled the events of the reign of Akbar, " the 

 greatest of the great Moguls " (who died in 1605, and of some of 

 liis successors) it had its counterpart in Asia in those times. 



In Ferishta's work, translated into English by Dow about a 

 century ago, we find an account of the early life and adventm-es of 

 Nur Mehal, who became the wife of Akbar's son Jehangir, and was 

 the aunt of Mumtaz Mehal, to whose memory the Taj at Agra 

 was afterwards erected by her husband, Shah Jehan, the son of 

 Jehangir. 



The tale runs as follows : — Chiaja Aiass, the father of Nur Mehal, 

 was a native of Western Tartary, who belonged to a noble family 

 fallen into decay. He and his wife agreed to seek their fortune in 

 India, the}' having relations high in power at Akbar's Court ; their 

 whole wealth when they started appears to have been a sorry steed, 

 on which the wife rode, as she was not in a state to endure fatigue. 

 During their journey they were forced to subsist on charity; and 

 after a time, to complete their distress, a daughter was born to 

 them. The mother was very weak, and the father much exhausted 

 with privations, consequently they saw no alternative but to expose 

 their infant on the highway and leave it ; they therefore placed 

 her beneath a tree and went on their way. But after they had 

 proceeded a short distance, the mother's heart pined for her child ; 

 she could no longer contain herself, and wept bitterly at the thought 

 that she had been so cruel as to forsake it. Chiaja Aiass on this 

 returned to the spot where they had left the baby, with the inten- 

 tion of restoring the infant to its mother, and, as the story goes, he 

 found a black snake had coiled itself round the child, and on his 

 calling out, tne animal glided away ; that he took up the child, 

 which was unharmed, and that the family then proceeded by slow 

 marches to Lahore, where Akbar at that time was holding his 

 Court." Can this tale have been the foundation of the story of 

 Llewellyn and Gellert ? and the latter be but the European version 

 of an incident which occurred in the East ? Cosmopolitax. 



[Problem. — To find in the above story the hound Gellert. — E. P.] 



WEATHER FORECASTS. 



[1030] — I am very far from wishing to anticipate anything that 

 Mr. Browning may have to teU us when he resumes the papers on 

 weather forecasts begun in your number of Knowledge of 

 October 12, but there is one point I should like to bring under the 

 notice of your readers, who may be interested in this use of the 

 spectroscope and are, like myself, observers — and the sooner this 

 is done, I think, the better. My question is whether we cannot 

 agree upon some general method of observation. 



There are many conditions to be noted, and many things to be 

 duly weighed and considered, in arriving at the mental comparison 

 to be made by numbers ranging up to 5, as suggested in Mr. Rand- 

 Capron's pamphlet. 



I myself have drawn up, and am using daily, a form which 



contains no less than twelve columns, of which I send you a copy,, 

 and possibly there may be other things of importance which I have 

 omitted. 



At first this may seem complicated, but I am convinced that 

 every one of these columns is of importance, the variations shown 

 are very curious and interesting, and although I am, as yet, unable to 

 correctly interpret their meaning in every case, still I find them 

 often very helpful and suggestive. I can note them all now with 

 ease and rapidity, and I do not find that the whole observation is 

 appreciably lengthened by giving attention to their several points. 



I should be very glad to hear what others are doing, and under 

 what form they are recording their observations. 



Although I make my observations at 9 a.m. daily, I am convinced 

 that one observation a day is not nearly sufficient, and that the • 

 spectroscope may be used many times a day with advantage, the 

 changes in the relative values of the columns being often vei-y 

 rapid, and the instrument quite as susceptible of recording passing 

 atmospheric conditions as the aneroid barometer. 



John T. Hardinc;. 



P.S. — On Friday, November 9, I noted an extremely sharp aud 

 well defined fine line, a little to the right (i.e., towards the blue 

 end) of the D lines. I have failed to exactly identify it. I wonder 

 whether any other observers also noted it on that day. I have 

 looked for it since and failed to discover it, at all events in anything 

 like the intensity it showed on that day, although in other 

 respects, the spectrum has been much the same. 



STORM GLASS. 



[1031] — E. Brown (No. 1013) does not hit the point of the inquiry 

 which was made recently in your useful journal. The storm glass 

 asked about was a chemical one, such as are to be found attached 

 to the Fitzroy barometer. 



I have not the number of Knowledge by me which contains the 

 query, but I noted at the time that the materials were the same as 

 I used above twenty years ago with success. But they require 

 careful manipulation, or they will not succeed, as the querist found. 

 I have made several recently in two-ounce bottles. Some succeed, 

 others do not. 



I have had most success when I have used distilled water for the 

 two salts, and used a less quantity of water than was mentioned by 

 the querist. Then carefully pour in the solution of camphor, and 

 cork. Let the bottle remain still to allow a slow combination, and 

 the result ought to be that the salts sro thrown down and thr 

 clear solution floats over them. If the upper portion remains clear 

 it betokens fine weather. If crystals sprout up into the clear it 

 betokens, with a falling barometer, rain or snow, or with a high 

 barometer, wind and storm. Such, at least, is the result of my 

 observation as to the barometer recommended by E. Brown. ! 

 have had one in use for years, but it requires fresh water occa- 

 sionally to make up for evaporation. 1 also put some water into 

 the Florence flask before inverting it in the pickle-jar, which, of 

 course, must have less water in thati E. Brown directs. Bnt this 

 is not a storm glass properly so called, but rather a makeshift baro- 

 meter, and on the same principles. 



I cannot explain the action of the true storm glass, unless on the 

 supposition of magnetism, as it is carefully exempted from atmo- 

 spheric pressure. H. 



Pershore. 



P.S. — On referring again to " E. Brown's " communication, I notc 

 that he recommends the oil-flask to be surrounded by a piece of 

 cork so as to be air-tight. If so, how could the atmospheric pres- 

 sure force up water into the flask ? He ought to have said, Plaro 



