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
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