110 FROM THE COUNTRY OF THE CICONES, 
CHAP, short, and the nights of revelling so long, that, 
- before morning, they are quite weary of their 
debaucheries, and readily consign themselves 
to sleep, until the sun again sinks below the 
horizon. They have also another advantage in 
a winter Ramadan; in not being liable to the 
same degree of thirst ; when they are for- 
bidden, during the day, to moisten their parched 
lips with a drop of water, although rendered 
feverish by the excesses of the preceding night, 
and by the heat of their climate. As this fast is 
regulated by the course of the moon, it occurs 
earlier in each year than it did in the pre- 
ceding; and thus progressively falls within 
every month ' 
Bidgar Saturday, {Jan. 9,) we left Kishan, and rode 
first to Bulbar Kieu, distant one hour ; after- 
(l) See Rycaut's Ottoman Empire, p. 161. — Rycaut shew?, from 
Pococke's " NotcE de Arahum Morihus," that the institution of the 
Ramadan was originally founded upon a Jewish Fast. " The institu- 
tion of this month of Ramazan proceeded from Mahomet himself, in 
the second year of his prophetic office, which he did not assume until 
he had fully completed forty years ; having before, in imitation of the 
Jews' Fast of Ashcra, {Leviticus xvi. ve?-. 29.) in memory of the 
overthrow of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, enjoined to the 
Arabians the same time of abstinence ; but afterwards, apprehending 
it dishonourable to be beholding to the Jews for the invention of a 
Fast, instituted the Ramazan." 
