8 2 ACCOUNT OF THE 



60 Pul (correlative as above, in this fexagefimal 

 fcale with our minutes or primes) one g,huree 3 and 

 60 g,huree (called alfo d,und, which we may here 

 tranflate hour) conftitute our twenty-four hours,* 

 or one whole day; divided into \puhur din> di- 

 urnal watches; \puhur rat, nocturnal watches. 

 During the equinoctial months, there are juft 30 

 gyhurees in the day, and 30 alfo in the night ; each 

 gjouree properly occupying a fpace, at all times, ex- 

 actly equal to 24 of our minutes ; becaufe 60 g t hurees, 

 of 24 Englijh minutes each, are of courfe 24 Englijh 

 hours of 60 Englijh minutes each. For nations under 

 or near the equator, this horological arrangement will 

 prove convenient enough, and may yet be adduced as 

 one argument for afcertaining with more precifion the 

 country whence the Hindus originally came, provided 

 they are, as is generally fuppofed, the inventors of the 

 fyftem under confideration here. The farther we re- 

 cede from the line, the more difficult and troublefome 

 will the prefent plan appear. And as in this country the 

 artificial day commences with the dawn, and clofes jufl 

 after fun-fet, it becomes necefTary to make the puhurs or 

 watches contract and expand occafionally, in proportion 

 to the length of the day, and the confequent fhortnefs 

 of the night, by admitting a greater or fmaller number 

 of gjmrees into thefe grand diurnal and nodlurnal di- 

 vifions alternately, and according to the fun's pro- 

 grefs to or from the tropicks. The fummer folftitial 

 day will, therefore, confift of 34 gjourees, and the 



night 



* Lumhu and diim 9 perhaps, anfwer to our minutes and feconds, 

 as the conftituent parts of the fa. ut, or hour, 24 of which are 

 laid to conftitute a natural dav, and are reckoned from 1 o'clock 

 after mid day. regularly on through the night ; alfo up to 24 

 o'clock the next noon, as formerly was the cafe, and which is 

 flill obferved in fomc places on the continent; or, like ours, 

 from 1 after noon to 1 2 at midnight; and again, from 1 after 

 midnight to 12 o'clock the next noon. Whether thofe few who 

 can talk of the fa.ut at all, have learnt this entirely from us or 

 not, is a point rather dubious to me ; but I fufpect they have it 

 from the Arabians, who acquired this with other fciences from 

 the Greeks. 



