35° 



TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



is an ufage frequent, and (till retained among the Jews, 

 though pofitively prohibited by the law : " Thou (halt not 

 cut thy face for the fake of, or on account of the dead *. 

 As foon as a near relation dies in Abyflinia, a brother or pa- 

 rent, coufin german or lover, every woman in that relation, 

 with the nail of her little finger, which fhe leaves long on 

 purpofe, cuts the fkin of both her temples, about the fize of 

 a fixpence ; and therefore you fee either a wound or a fear 

 in every fair face in Abyfnnia ; and in the dry feafon, when 

 the camp is out, from aie lofs of friends they feldom 

 have liberty to heal till peace and the army return with 

 the rains. 



The AbyfTinians, like the ancient Egyptians, their firft co- 

 lony, in computing their time, have continued the ufe of the 

 folar year. Diodorus Siculus fays, " They do not reckon 

 their time by the moon, but according to the fun ; that thir- 

 ty days conftitute their memh, to which they add five days 

 and the fourth part of a day, and this completes their: 

 year. 



These five days were, by the Fgyptians, called Nici, and, 

 by the Greeks, Epagomeni, which fignifies, days added, or 

 fuperinduced, to complete a mm. 1 he AbyfTinians add five 

 days, which they call Quagomi, a corruption from the Greek 

 Epagomeni, to the month of Auguft, which is their Naha- 

 affe. Every fourth year they add a fixth day. ^ They begin 

 the year, like all the eaftern nations, with the 29th or 30th 

 day of Auguft, that is the kalends of September, the 29th of 

 Auguft being the firft of their month Mafcaram. 



It 



* Dent. chap. xiv. vcr. i. 



