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350 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
_is an ufage frequent, and full retained among the Jews, 
though pofitively prohibited by the law: “ Thou fhalt 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 {kin of both her temples, about the fize of 
a fixpence; and therefore you fee either a wound or a {car 
in every fair face in Abyflinia ; and in the dry feafon, when 
the camp is out, from the lofs of friends they feldom 
have liberty to heal till peace and the army return with. 
the rains. 
- Tur Abyffinians, 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 month, to which they add five days 
and the fourth part of a day, and. this. completes their: 
year. 
Tuese five days were, by the Fgyptians, called Nici, and; 
by the Greeks, Epagomeni, which fignifies, days added, or. 
fuperinduced, to complete a fum. The Abyflinians add five 
days, which they call Quagomi, a corruption from the Greek. - 
Epagomeni, to the month of Auguft, which is their Naha- 
affé. Every fourth year they add a fixth day. They begin 
the year, like all the eaftern nations, with the agth or 30th 
day of Auguft, that is the kalends of September, the 29th of. 
“Auguft being the firft of their month Mafcaram. 
Ir 
* Deut. chap. xiv, vers I. 
