would these talks be but an exercise in futility? Their impossibility,
from the viewpoint of rationality and observation, is self-evident.
Only , those who seek escape from rationalism and demonstration
resort to them. The people of India, in particular, have exaggerated
these superstitions, being inclined towards beliefs in magical and animistic practices . . . The fact is that the hail may fall at one place
and not another. A cloud carrying hoar-frost does not rain as would
a rainy cloud at all places. Occasionally, such a cloud is very thick,
black and broken. It travels at a high speed, since it is carried by air.
It, therefore, throws large rain-drops, and, if the drops of water
underneath it freeze, they take the form of hail. It is quite possible
that one field may receive hail, while the adjoining field might not.
The Brahmins make the cultivator whose field has received the hail
accept their claim, while the one whose field has escaped the hail is
deprived of the power of argument. People wonder at the correct
predictions of an astrologer, but are apt to forget that he has been
making wrong prognostications all the time.
Beruni has here distinguished between the cumulus and cumulonimbus;
the latter is the bearer of rain and shower. What is more here, he speaks
with a very rational and modern mind which is against astrology and
superstition. One has to see how scientific he is when he narrates the
making of coloured glass:
It is cast from a well known stone or from sand to which borax has
been added. The substance is heated on fire for several days till it
accumulates, clarifies, and. progressively hardens,
I think — although it is not a virtual certainty — there are different
gems in the form of sand grains. If you look at it carefully, you will
find black, reddish, white and transparent grains in them. Through
the agency of borax the glass particles are separated and the remaining parts are also removed. Melting over long periods results in all
the ingredients being consumed and the transparent and clear glass
remains. Suhar Bakht says that it is the daub of the Egyptian cups.
This could be so. Axially, the weight of the transparent Syrian glass
is 70-2/3.
Beruni's description of the making of porcelain goblets in China is
remarkable for its originality of narration. It could be the first such
narration and here we have the full benefit of admission into the reading
of Kitab al-Jamahir.
Many anthropologists, notably Carleton Coon, maintain that homo
sapiens originated at different places. The Prophet Adam probably
exemplifies the highest and most intelligent among them. Beruni inclines
to the view that homo sapiens originated at different places and in different regions:
