________________
398
SHAYAST LÂ-SHAYAST.
one foot and a half, at the fifteenth of Leo it is two feet; when the sun is at Virgo it is two feet and a half, at the fifteenth of Virgo it is three feet and a half; at Libra it is four feet and a half, at the fifteenth of Libra it is five feet and a half?; at Scorpio it is six feet and a half, at the fifteenth of Scorpio it is seven 3 feet and a half; at Sagittarius it is eight feet and a half, at the fifteenth of Sagittarius it is nine feet and a half; at Capricornus it is ten feet, at the fifteenth of Capricornus it is nine 4 feet and a half; at Aquarius it is eight' feet and a half, at the fifteenth of Aquarius it is seven feet and a half; at Pisces it is six feet and a half, at the fifteenth of Pisces it is five feet and a half; at Aries it is four feet and a half, at the fifteenth of Aries it is three feet and a half; at Taurus it is two feet and a half, at the fifteenth of Taurus it is two feet; at Gemini it is one foot and a half, at the fifteenth of Gemini it is one foot 8.
· K20 has three' by mistake. 3 M6 omits and a half' by mistake. : K20 has 'six' by mistake.
• Both MSS. omit one cipher, and have only six,' but the shadow must be the same here as at the fifteenth of Sagittarius.
o Both MSS. have seven,' which is clearly wrong.
• It is obvious that, as the length of a man's shadow depends upon the height of the sun, each of these observations of his noonday shadow determines the altitude of the sun at noon, and is, therefore, a rude observation for finding the latitude of the place, provided we know the ratio of a man's foot to his stature. According to Bund. XXVI, 3 a man's stature is eight spans (vitast), and according to Farh. Okh. p. 41 a vitast is twelve finger-breadths, and a foot is fourteen (see Bund. XXVI, 3, note), so that a man's stature of eight spans is equivalent to 6% feet. Assuming this to have been the ratio adopted by the observer, supposing the obliquity of the ecliptic to have been 23° 35' (as it
Digitized by Google
