86 
showing him by the Koran, that the practice of astrology 
is a sin. This sentence was confirmed by several doc- 
tors or fakihs, and I was proclaimed as one of their 
fellows. 
As this scene had passed in the presence of a great 
assembly; as the annual prediction of the astronomers of 
Fez did not appear, and as to replace it I gave my own 
calculation of the days on which the new moon would 
be seen, which was of importance to fix the beginning 
of the Arabian months, of Easter, and the hour of the 
five daily prayers, which I noted, for every five days in 
the year, as well as the eclipses and other phenomena, 
which the astronomers could not do. All this was a 
stroke of thunder to them, and drew on them the public 
contempt. Hence many of them apostatise; some of 
them, however, retain their former opinions, but hide 
them in silence, most likely hoping that the opposing 
feeling will pass away, and that the people who love to 
be deceived will soon resume them. 
This empire has some historians or authors, who have 
written on this country and its inhabitants; but their 
works are very little read; they are quite ignorant -of 
the history of other nations. 
Their language is in a state of extreme degradation; 
they have no printing-offices, and the great imperfec- 
tion of their writing arises from the circumstance, that 
they frequently confound the letters w r ith the dots and 
accents. These circumstances united destroy the little 
scientific knowledge that remains; so that it happens ve- 
ry often that the inhabitants do not understand each 
other. It is a formidable task to them to read a writ- 
ten paper, which very often the writer himself is una- 
ble to decypher. This may account for the circum- 
stance, that when the famous Orientalist Golius, came 
