88 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



daybreak. Then there come a few nights without any moon, 

 until again the pale crescent reappears at sunset. 



As a guide to the teacher it should be noticed that the crescent 

 moon is never seen to rise. She rises during the day, but does 

 not become visible until sufficient light has faded from the sky 

 for her pale line to be seen. Again, as it may be possible to get 

 sharp-eyed pupils to observe, though theoretically it may be 

 said that a period of twenty-nine days elapses between one new 

 moon and the next, yet in point of fact there is an uncertainty 

 of a full day, i.e. the period may be twenty-nine or thirty days. 

 The reason for this is that the question whether or not the new 

 moon will be visible on a particular evening depends upon the 

 exact hour at which the conjunction of sun and moon took 

 place. If this conjunction occurred eighteen hours before sun- 

 set, then it might be possible to see the crescent moon for a few 

 minutes. If the conjunction took place less than eighteen hours 

 before, it would be necessary to wait another day before the new 

 moon could be seen. 



Teachers will find a very interesting little story illustrative 

 of this point in Fromentin' s Un te dans le Sahara. The 

 anecdote has reference to the Mohammedan fast of Ramadan. 

 As the Mohammedan calendar is lunar, the new month begins 

 and the fast ends with the first observation of the new moon. 

 But, as suggested above, this observation is often a delicate 

 matter. Fromentin, who started on a journey across the desert 

 at the end of the month of fasting, describes how in the town 

 from which he started a sharp-eyed member of the faithful 

 community declared that he had seen the crescent moon. No- 

 body else had seen it, but as not to see it meant another day 

 of rigorous fasting, the community in general accepted the state- 

 ment with alacrity, and proceeded to the holding of the pre- 

 scribed feast. Fromentin with some difficulty got his caravan 

 started, but after some hours' marching reached another settlement, 

 where, to his surprise, he found that the community were still 

 fasting. His followers also expressed great surprise, and told the 

 village elders that the fast was over, the new moon had been 

 seen at their village. But the elders here, of a more devout 

 frame of mind, poured scorn upon the statement, and intimated 



