354 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



morning lads. The fame is obferved at night, and Mefe 

 is meant to fignify the inflant of beginning the twilight 

 between the fun's falling below the horizon and the ftars 

 appearing. Mid-day is by them called Kater, a very old word, 

 which figniiies culmination, or a thing's being arrived or pla- 

 ced at the middle or higheft part of an arch. All the reft 

 of times, in converfation, they defcribe by pointing at the 

 place in the heavens where the fun then was, when what 

 they are defcribing happened. 



1 shall conclude what further I have to fay on 

 fubject, by obferving, that nothing can be more inaccura't 

 than all Abyflinian calculations. Befides their ab 

 norance in arithmetic, their excelllve idlenefs and averfion 

 to ftudy, and a number of fanciful, whimucal combina= 

 tions, by which every particular fcribe or monk diflinguif I 

 himfelf, there are obvious reafons why there mould Lv 

 variation between their chronology and ours. I have al- 

 ready obferved, that the beginning of our years are differ- 

 ent ; ours begin on the ill of January, and theirs on 

 the ift day of September, fo that there are 8 months dif- 

 ference between us. The iaft day of Auguft may be the 

 year «73o with us, and 1779 only with the Abyflmians. And 

 in the reign of their kings they very feldom mention either 

 month or day beyond an even number of years. Suppo- 

 fing, then, it is known that the reign of ten kings extended 

 from fuch-to fuch a period, where all the months and days 

 are comprehended, when we come to aflign to each of 

 thefe an equal number of years, without the correfpondent 

 months and days, it is plain that, when all thefe feparate 

 reigns come to be added together, the one fum-total will 

 not agree with the other, but will be more or lefs than the 



4 juft 



