A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



kind of a machine for reckoning time. He finds in one 

 of the tablets a phrase which he interprets to mean 

 measure-governor, and he infers from this the existence 

 of a kind of a calculator. He calls attention also to the 

 fact that Sextus Empiricus 13 states that the clepsydra 

 was known to the Chaldeans, and that Herodotus as- 

 serts that the Greeks borrowed certain measures of time 

 from the Babylonians. He finds further corroboration 

 in the fact that the Babylonians had a time-measure by 

 which they divided the day and the night ; a measure 

 called kasbu, which contained two hours. In a report re- 

 lating to the day of the vernal equinox, it is stated that 

 there are six kasbu of the day and six kasbu of the night. 



While the astrologers deduced their omens from all 

 the celestial bodies known to them, they chiefly gave 

 attention to the moon, noting with great care the shape 

 of its horns, and deducing such a conclusion as that 

 " if the horns are pointed the king will overcome what- 

 ever he goreth," and that " when the moon is low at its 

 appearance, the submission (of the people) of a far 

 country will come." 14 The relations of the moon and 

 sun were a source of constant observation, it being 

 noted whether the sun and moon were seen together 

 above the horizon; whether one set as the other rose, 

 and the like. And whatever the phenomena, there was 

 always, of course, a direct association between such 

 phenomena and the well-being of human kind in 

 particular the king, at whose instance, and doubtless 

 at whose expense, the observations were carried out. 



From omens associated with the heavenly bodies it 

 is but a step to omens based upon other phenomena of 

 nature, and we shall see in a moment that the' Babylo- 



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