This has been identified by Mr. P. H. Cowell, F.R.S., Chief Assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, as the eclipse of the sun that was total at Babylon on July 31, B.C. 1063. The Babylonians, when bad weather obliged them to resort to dead reckoning, were, therefore, still reckoning the month as precisely thirty days so late as the times of Samuel and Saul, and in this particular instance were two, if not three, days out in their count. Had the new moon of Sivan been observed, or correctly calculated, the eclipse must have been reckoned as falling on the 28th or 29th day of the month. The Athenians in the days of Solon, five hundred years later than this, adopted months alternately twenty-nine and thirty days in length, which gives a result very nearly correct. The Jews after the Dispersion adopted the system of thus alternating the lengths of their months, and with some slight modifications it holds good to the present day. As will be shown in the following chapter, the ordinary years are of twelve months, but seven years in every nineteen are "embolismic," having an extra month. The names employed are those learned during the Babylonian captivity, and the year begins with the month Tishri, corresponding to September-October of our calendar. The lengths of most of the months are fixed as given in the following table, but any adjustment necessary can be effected either by adding one day to Heshvan, which has usually twenty-nine days, or taking away one day from Kislev, which has usually thirty-- ORDINARY YEAR EMBOLISMIC YEAR DAYS DAYS Tishri 30 30 Heshvan 29 + 29 + Kislev 30 - 30 - Tebeth 29 29 Shebat 30 30 Adar 29 30 Ve-adar ... 29 Nisan 30 30 Yiar 29 29 Sivan 30 30 Tamuz 29 29 Ab 30 30 Elul 29 29 The Jewish month, therefore, continues to be essentially a true lunar one, though the exact definition of each month is, to some extent, conventional, and the words of the Son of Sirach still apply to the Hebrew calendar-- "The moon also is in all things for her season, For a declaration of times, and a sign of the world. From the moon is the sign of the feast day; A light that waneth when she is come to the full." For so God-- "Appointed the moon for seasons." CHAPTER IV THE YEAR