IN DAYS OF OLD

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 102, 4 May 1929, Page 11

IN DAYS OF OLD

BEHELD WITH AWE

ECLIPSES OF THE SUN

EFFECTS OX HISTORY

Eclipses, especially those of the sun, have always excited a great degree of wonderment amongst the inhabitants of this planet. In former days, upon their occurrence, humanity trembled •with consternation at what was considered the judgment of Heaven, for surely here was the work of some invisible hand throwing a veil over the luminary, or the earth had strayed off its appointed path anil was about to be deprived for ever of its light. In these enlightened days, when the causes of eclipses are known to every child at school, it is difficult to imagine how deeply eclipses affected the untutored mind. Eclipses were terrible presages of dire events, and oven in civilised Koine at. one time it was blasphemy, punishable by law, to talk publicly of these phenomena as being due to natural causes. The spread of scientific knowledge has changed all this, but there are even still to-day millions of people who see in an eclipse the interference of some mighty power with the normal course of events, and even to civilised peoples of the present day a total eclipse of the sun has lost little of the awe with which it has always been regarded. The one due to take placo next Thursday, being visible in Sumatra and some other Eastern countries, will, it is safe to assert, be regarded by the natives of those parts as a dire- threat from Heaven; but by hundreds of scientists it will be looked upon as a very favourable opportunity for making observations and for solving many problems since- the total phase lasts for over five minutes, which is a long time as eclipses go. Eclipse folk-lore would fill more than a bulky volume. A celestial dragon, or some other monster swallowing the luminous orb, accounted to many nations for an eclipse, hence the beating of drums and the shooting of weapons to scare away the .devouring dragon and to rescue the celestial orb from his clutches. Or again, an eclipse was the struggle on the part of the sun and moon with- bailiffs sent to take them into custody. The Birkors still holds this view, believing that the luminaries have stood security for the debts of poor men. Good it is for them to think that the- bailiffs are finally forcibly ejected and the sun and moon allowed to go rejoicing on their way. Millions in China to this day on the occasion of an eclipse use expiatory ceremonies prescribed thousands of years ago to ward off the evil and to restore the heavenly bodies to their normal paths and duties. ANCIENT RECORDS. Delving into ancient records of eclipses makes interesting reading, for, as would bo supposed, eclipses have been noted by historians of very remote times. Probably the first eclipse of which there is an existing written record is a total eclipse of the sun, which occurred on 22nd October, 8.C., 2137, that is, if tho Chinese chroniclers may be believed. Although these Chinese records may be open to question as far as their astronomical accuracy is concerned, they provide an insight into the perils of life as an astronomer in those far-off days. It was owing to this eclipse that two leading and royal Chinese astronomers Hsi and Ho, lost their heads in both senses of the phrase. They were decapitated by the orders of an irate Emperor, it would seem, not for failing to predict tho phenomenon, but for being too drunk when the eclipse took place to take the necessary steps, such as the beating of drums and the shooting of arrows, to frighten away tho intruding shadow. We are on much surer ground, however, when a total eclipse of B.C. 1069 is considered. A full description of this, as also of one visible at Nineveh in B.C. 762, has been found described on Babylonian tablets with a wealth of detail, but slightly inferior to the detailed astronomical observation;! of the present day.

The eclipse of B.C. 581 is perhaps one of, the most famous of those of ancient history. Tho historian Herodotus describes how it was predicted by Thales and how the phenomenon was used as a means of preventing war between the Medes and Lydians. In B.C. 413 a total eclipse of the moon caused the destruction of the Greek army, for Ihe Athenian general, Nicias, was so dismayed at the spectacle, which he regarded as a terribly evil omen, that he delayed his retreat until too late. An eclipse of the sun in 1033 is reputed to have saved the life of the Pope of that date, conspirators who intended to strangle him at the altar being so terrified at the portent in the heavens that they fled in consternation without achieving their object. As recently a« 1877 an eclipse has, momentarily at any rate, affected national affairs. In that year, when Turks and Russians were at loggerheads, the unexpected advent of an eclipse of the sun caused a temporary suspension of hostilities, tho Turks taking a respite from firing at the Russians to fire at the dragon presumed to "be devouring the sun.

TURNED TO GOOD ACCOUNT. Fore-knowledge of a coming eclipse has several times in history been turned to good account, the idea having been used times without number by writers of adventurous fiction. The story of Christopher Columbus in this connection is well authenticated, aud he has not been the only one to turn a popular superstition to good account. In 1504 Columbus was in danger of starvation on the island of Jamaica, contumacious savages refusing to give him provisions. Columbus, however, had with him. an astronomical almanac, which prognosticated an eclipse of the moon on the following day. So he duly intimated to the unfriendly natives that if they still refused to meet his wishes he would put put the moon. The Caribs, as was to be expected, made light of this boast, and persisted in their refusal to supply food. But Columbus apparently was a man of his word, and a magician not to be trifled with, for the moon did actually begin to go out. Hardly had the earth's shadow started to creep across the lunar disc than tho terrified savages were grovelling at his feet, promising sufficient victuals for all emergencies if only he would restore to them again the life of the moon. Columbus did not advertise the fact that he could not stop the phenomenon once it had begun, but he promised that he would consider the matter, and the restoration of the moon's light within an hour or so. This he did, apparently, and all was well with the moon, the Caribs, and the Commissariat.