6939 days and 18 hours are longer by 1 hour 30 minutes 38 seconds 25 thirds than the Indian That of Numa must be of a number of whole days according to Titus Livius whose words are these Ad cursum Lunae in duodecim menses describit annum quem quia tricenos dies singulis mensibus Luna non explet desuntque dies solido anni qui solstitiali circumagitur orbe intercalares mensibus interponendo ita dispensavit ut vigesimo anno ad metam eandem solis unde orsi essent plenis annorum spatiis dies congruerent In all the Manuscripts that we have seen it is read vicesimo anno and not vigesimo quarto as in some printed Copies The period of 19 years of the Indians is therefore more exact than these periods of the Ancients and than our golden Cycle and it agrees to 3 minutes and 5 or 6 seconds with the period of 235 lunar months established by the moderns which do make it of 6939 days 16 hours 13 minutes 27 seconds This is the beginning of the current Indian period of 19 years and of the rest which follow for above an Age in the Gregorian Calendar at the Meridian of Siam with the hours after midnight    Days H. M.  1683 March 27 21 57  1702 March 28 14 26  1721 March 28 6 56 Biss 1740 March 27 23 25  1759 March 28 15 54  1778 March 28 8 24  1797 March 28 0 53 Biss 1816 March 28 17 22 Of the Indian Epacts THE Epact of the months is the difference of the time which is between the new Moon and the end of the solar month current and the annual Epact is the difference of the time which is between the end of the simple lunar or embolismic year and the end of the solar year which runs when the lunar year ends According to the exposition of the I Section 228 lunar months more 7 other lunar months are equal to 228 solar months Dividing the whole therefore by 228 1 lunar month more 7 22â— of a lunar month is equal to a solar month The Indian Epact of the first month is therefore 7 22â— of a lunar month The Epact of the second 14 228 and so of the rest and the Epact of 12 months which do make a simple lunar year is 84 228 the Epact of two years 168 228 the Epact of 3 years would be 252 22â— but because that 228 228 are a month a month is added to the third year which is Embolismic and the rest is the Epact 24 22â— Thus the Epact of six years is â—8 22â— The Epact of 18 years is 1â—4 22â— And adding thereunto the Epact of a year which is â—â—4 22â— The Epact of 19 years would be 22â— 228 which do make a lunar month To the nineteenth year is added a thirteenth month to make it Embolismic thus the Epact at the end of the nineteenth year is 0. If the lunisolar years are ordered after this manner they will always end before the synodical Equinox or in the Equinox it self But they may be so ordered that they end always after the synodical Equinox which will happen if when the Epact is 0 they begin them with the new Moon which happens a month after the synodical Equinox and after this manner the first month of the Astronomical year will commence at the beginning of the fifth month of the Civil year after the Embolisme whereas in the year of the first method the first month would end at the beginning of the fifth month of the Civil year after the Embolisme This Indian Epact is a great deal more exact than our vulgar Epact which augments 11 days by the year so that they deduct 30 days when it exceeds this number taking 30 days for a lunar month and the nineteenth year they substract 29 days to reduce the Epocha to nothing at the end of the nineteenth lunisolar year The Indian Epact of a month being reduced to hours consists of 21 hours 45′ 33″ 46‴ The Epact of a year consists of 10 days 21 hours 6′ 45″ The Epact of 3 years is 3 days 2 hours 36 minutes 13 seconds The Epact of 11 years which is the least of all in the Cycle of 19 years is 1 day 13 hours 18′ 7″ The Indian Epact may be consider'd in respect of the Julian and Gregorian years and it will serve to find the beginning of the Civil and Astronomical years of the Indians in our Calendar after they shall have established an Epocha and denoted the Terms From a Common or Bissextile year to the succeeding common Julian or Gregorian year the Indian Epact consists of 10 days 15 hours 11′ 32″ From a common year to the following Bissextile year the Indian Epact is 11 days 15 hours 11′ 32″ The annual Epact must be substracted from the first new Moon of a year to find the first new Moon of the following year But when after the Substraction the new Moon precedes the Term they add a month to the year to make it Embolismic Thus having supposed the first new Moon after the synodical Equinox of the year 1683 as in Chapter IX on the 25th of April 22 hours and 41 minutes after noon that is to say on the 26th of April at 10 a clock 41 minutes of the morning in the Meridian of Siam to have the first new Moon of the following year 1684 which is Bissextile they will substract from this time 11 days 15 hours 11 minutes 32 seconds and they will have the 14th of April at 19 hours 29 minutes 28 seconds of the year 1684 and to have the first new Moon of the solar synodical year of the year 1685 which is common they will substract from the preceding days 10 days 15 hours 11 minutes 32 seconds and they will have the 4th of April at 4 hours 17 minutes 56 seconds In fine to have the first new Moon of the solar synodical year of the following year 1686 which is common deducting likewise the same number of days they will have the 24th of March at 13 hours 6 minutes 24 seconds But because that this day precedes the term of the synodical years which for this Age hath been found the 27th of March it is necessary to add a lunar month of 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes 3 seconds thus the year will be Embolismic of 13 Moons and they will have the first new Moon of the synodical Indian year the 23d of April at 1 hour 50 minutes 27 seconds in the morning at Siam and continuing after the same manner they will have all the first new Moons of the following years In these Indian rules the name of an Embolismick or Attikamaat agrees to the year which immediately follows the Intercalation The lunisolar years may likewise be order'd in such a manner that the addition of the intercalary month may be made when the Epact exceeds 114 228 which do make the half of the month to the
number of lunar months according to the modern Astronomers by 1 day and 14 hours which is almost the Epact of 11 years and by the method of the XIII Chapter it will be found that the Anticipation of the Aequinoxes in regard of this number of synodical years of the Indians is 54 days and 5 hours If they retrench 11 years from this period there will be one of 13346 years composed of 165069 lunar months or of 4874564 days which will be more conformaable to the modern Hypothesis XV. The great lunisolar Equinoxial period conformable to the preceding corrections BUt instead of correcting the great period foregoing it is more proper to find out a much shorter which brings back the new Moons and the Equinoxes to the same hour under the same Meridian thereby to establish some Astronomical Epocha's more near and to abridge the Calculations which are so much the longer as the Epocha's are more distant from our time It is extreamly difficult or rather it is impossible to find some short and precise periods which conjunctly reduce the new Moons and the Equinoxes to the same Meridian Vieta proposes one for the Gregorian Calendar of 165580000 years which comprehends 2047939047 lunar months It is not possible to verifie the exactness of these periods by the comparison of the Observations that we have the ancientest of which are only of 25 Ages and these long periods serve not our design which is to bring the Epocha's nearer It is better to make use of the shortest tho less exact periods and to denote how they want of being exact according to the Hypotheses which we follow By the rules of the first Section and by our additions it is found that 1040 synodical Indian years do make 12863 lunar months and 157851 1000000 and by the rules of the II. Section it is found that this number of 12863 months without the fraction makes 379851 days 21 hours 24 minutes 19 seconds According to the correction made by the method of the XII Chapter of these Reflexions to this number of days it is necessary to add 2 hours and 49 minutes to render it conformable to the Hypotheses of the Modern Astronomers thus in this number of 12863 months there are 379852 whole days and 13 minutes 19 seconds of an hour The same number of months with the fraction according to the Rules of the II. Section and according to our additions makes 379856 days 13 hours 16 minutes 43 seconds which do make 1040 synodical Indian years The difference by which these years exceed the Tropical years by our method of the XIII Chapter of these Reflexions is found of 4 days 13 hours 28 minutes 25 seconds and this difference being deducted from 379856 days 13 h 16′ 43″ there remains 379851 days 23 hours 48 minutes 28 seconds for 1040 Tropical years and to make 379852 whole days there wants only 11 minutes and 32 seconds during which the proper motion of the Sun is not sensible XVI A Modern Epocha of the New Moons extracted from the Indian Epocha HAving added 1040 years to the Indian Epocha of the 638th year of Jesus Christ there will be the year 1678 for a new Epocha in which the Conjunction of the Moon with the Sun will happen the day of the middle Equinox 13 minutes of an hour later in respect of the same Meridian and 25 minutes later in respect of the middle Equinox so that the Conjunction happening in the year 638 at Siam at 3 a clock 2 minutes in the Morning in the year 1678 it will there happen at 3 a clock 15 minutes in the Morning During this interval the Anticipation of the Equinoxes in the Julian Calendar is 8 days which being deducted from 21 there remains 13 and thus the middle Equinox which in the year 638 was on the 21 of March is found in the year 1678 on the 13 of March of the Julian year which is the 23 of the Gregorian year The middle Conjunction will therefore happen in the year 1678 on the 23 of March at 3 a clock 15 minutes in the morning at the Meridian of Siam that is to say the 22 of March at 8 a clock 41 minutes of the Evening at the Meridian of Paris XVII Modern Epocha's of the Apogaeum and Node of the Moon BEcause that in this Epocha the new Moons the Apogaeum and Node of the Moon were too remote from the Equinox we have found an Equinoxial Epocha of the Apogaeum which precedes by 12 years that of the new Moon and an Epocha of the Nodes which follows it 12 years At the middle Equinox of the Spring in the year 1666 the Apogaeum of the Moon was at the Twentieth degree of Aries and at the end of the present Julian year 1689 the North Node of the Moon will be at the beginning of Aries but at the middle Equinox of the Spring 1690 it will be in the 26 degree and half of Pisces at 3 degrees and half of the Sun The Apogaeum of the Moon performs a revolution according to the succession of the Signs in 2232 days according to the Indian Rules or in 2231 days and a third according to the modern Astronomers The Nodes of the Moon of which there is no mention in the Indian Rules do perform a revolution contrary to the succession of the Signs in 6798 days ⅕ By these Principles there will be found as many Epocha's of the Apogaeum and Nodes as shall be desired XVIII An Epocha of the new Moons near the Apogaeum and the Nodes of the Moon and the middle Equinox of the Spring IT is not found that the Equinoxial new Moon should happen nearer our time and altogether nearer its Apogaeum and one of its Nodes than the 17 of March in the year of J. Christ 1029. This day at noon at the Meridian of Paris the middle place of the Sun was in the middle of the first degree of Aries at 3 degrees and half from the middle place of the Moon which joyned with the Sun the Evening of the same day The Apogaeum of the Moon preceded the Sun a degree and half and the descending Node of the Moon preceded it a degree the Apogaeum of the Sun being in the 26th degree of Gemini 'T would be needless to seek out another return of the Moon to its Apogaeum to its Node to the Sun and to the Vernal Equinox The concourse of all these circumstances together being too rare it is necessary to rest satisfied with having some Epocha's separated at diverse other times of which here are three the most exact The middle conjunction of the Moon with the Sun in the middle Equinox of the Spring happened in the year of J. Christ 1192 on the 15 of March about Noon at the Meridian of Rome The Apogaeum of the Moon was at the beginning of Aries in the middle Equinox of the Spring Anno 1460 on the 13 of March. The descending Node of the Moon was at the beginning of Aries
in the middle Equinox of the Spring Anno 1513 on the 14 of March. 'T will not be needless to have some particular Epocha's of the new Moons proper for the Julian Calendar to which most of the Chronologers do refer all the times past Julius Caesar chose an Epocha of Julian years in which the new Moon happened the first day of the year 'T was the 45th year before the birth of Jesus Christ which is in the rank of the Bissextiles according as this rank was afterwards established by Augustus and as it is still observed The first day of January of the same forty fifth year before Jesus Christ the middle conjunction of the Moon with the Sun happened at Six a clock in the Evening at the Meridian of Rome And the first of January in the 32d year of Jesus Christ the middle conjunction happened precisely at Noon at the Meridian of Rome The most commodious of the Epocha's near the middle conjunctions in the Julian years is that which happened the first of January Anno 1500 an hour and half before Noon at the Meridian of Paris XIX An Ancient Astronomical Epocha of the Indians IN the III. Chapter of these Reflexions we have remarked that the Siameses in their dates make use of an Epocha which precedes the year of Jesus Christ by 544 years and that after the twelfth or thirteenth month of the years from this Epocha which do now end in November or December the first month which follows and which must be attributed to the following year is yet attributed to the same year which has given us ground to conjecture that they attribute also to the same year the other months to the beginning of the Astronomical year which begins at the Vernal Equinox This conjecture has been confirmed by the report of Mr. de la Loubere who likewise judges that this Ancient Epocha must also be an Astronomical Epocha The extraordinary manner of computing the first and second month of the same year after the twelfth or thirteenth may cause a belief that the first month of these years which begins at present in November or December began anciently near the Vernal Equinox and that in process of time the Indians either thro negligence or to make use of a Cycle too short as would be that of 60 years which the Chineses do use have sometimes failed to add a thirteenth month to the year which ought to be Embolismick whence it has happen'd that the first month has run back into the winter which having been perceived the winter months now called first second and third have been attributed to the preceding year which according to the ancient institution ought not to end but at Spring Thus the Indian year which was called 2231 at the end of the year 1687 of Jesus Christ ought not to end according to the Ancient Institution till the Spring of the year 1688. Having substracted 1688 from 2231 there remains 543 which is the number of the compleat years from the ancient Epocha of the Indians to the year of Jesus Christ This Epocha appertains therefore to the current year 544 before Jesus Christ according to the most common way of computing In this year the middle conjunction of the Moon happened between the true Equinox and the middle Equinox of the Spring at 15 degrees distance from the North Node of the Moon the 27th of March according to the Julian form a Saturday which is an Astronomical Epocha almost like to that of the year 638 which has been chosen as more modern and more precise than the former Between these two Indian Epocha's there is a period of 1181 years which being joyned to a period of 19 years there are two periods of 600 years which reduce the new Moons near the Equinoxes XX. The Relation of the Synodical years of the Indians to those of the Cycle of the Chineses of 60 Years ACcording to the Chronology of China which Father Couplet published and according to Father Martinius in his History of China the Chineses do make use of lunisolar years and they destribute them into sexagenary Cycles the 74th of which began in the year of J. Christ 1683 so that the first Cycle should have begun 2697 years before the birth of Jesus Christ By the Indian Rules of the first Section in 60 synodical years there are 720 solar months and 742 lunar months and 24 228 It is necessary to reject this fraction because that the lunisolar years are composed of entire lunar months Yet this fraction in 19 sexagenary Cycles which do make 1140 years amounts to 456 22â— which do make two months therefore if the sexagenary Cycles of the Chineses are all uniform 1140 Chinese years are shorter by two months than 1140 synodical years of the Indians Wherefore if the Indians have regulated the Intercalations of their civil years by uniform sexagenary Cycles the beginning of the civil year 2232 ought to precede by a little less than four months the term of their synodical years which is at present on the 27 of March of the Gregorian year as it happened indeed which confirms what we have conjectured in the foregoing Chapter of the anticipation of the civil years To equal the years of the sexagenary Cycle to the synodical years regulated according to the Cycle of 19 years it would be necessary that among 19 sexagenary Cycles there were 17 of 742 lunar months and 2 of 743 or rather it would be necessary that after 9 Cycles of 742 months which do make 740 years the tenth Cycle following which would be accomplish'd in the year 600 was of 743 months But there is ground to doubt whether they use it thus seeing that the Chinese year has several times had occasion of being reformed to refer its beginning to the same term in which nevertheless the modern Relations accord only to 10 degrees Father Martinius denoting it at the 15th degree of Aquarius and Father Couplet at the 5th of the same Sign as if the Term had retreated 10 degrees since the time of Father Martinius It is unquestionable that a great part of the Eclipses and of the other Conjunctions which the Chineses do give as observed cannot have happened at the times that they pretend according to the Calendar regulated after the manner as it is at present as we have found by the Calculation of a great number of these Eclipses and even by the sole examination of the Intervals which are remarked between the one and the other for several of these Intervals are too long or too short to be possibly determined by the Eclipses which do happen only when the Sun is near one of the Nodes of the Moon where it could not possibly return at the times denoted if the Chinese years had been regulated in the past ages as they are at present Father Couplet himself doubts of some of these Eclipses by reason of the Compliment which the Chinese Astronomers made to one of their Kings whom
found by the Rules of the II. Section that 7421 lunar months do comprehend 219146 days 11 hours 57 minutes 52 seconds if therefore we compose this period of whole days it must consist of 219146 days 600 Gregorian years are alternatively of 219145 days and 219146 days they agree then to half a day with a lunisolar period of 600 years calculated according to the Indian Rules The second lunisolar period composed of Ages is that of 2300 years which being joyned to one of 600 makes a more exact period of 2900 years And two periods of 2300 years joyned to a period of 600 years do make a lunisolar period of 5200 years which is the Interval of the time which is reckoned according to Eusebius his Chronology from the Creation of the World to the vulgar Epocha of the years of J. Christ XXIII An Astronomical Epocha of the years of Jesus Christ THese lunisolar periods and the two Epocha's of the Indians which we have examin'd do point unto us as with the finger the admirable Epocha of the years of J. Christ which is removed from the first of these two Indian Epocha's a period of 600 years wanting a period of 19 years and which precedes the second by a period of 600 years and two of nineteen years Thus the year of Jesus Christ which is that of his Incarnation and Birth according to the Tradition of the Church and as Father Grandamy justifies it in his Christian Chronology and Father Ricciolus in his reformed Astronomy is also an Astronomical Epocha in which according to the modern Tables the middle conjunction of the Moon with the Sun happened the 24 of March according to the Julian form re-established a little after by Augustus at one a clock and a half in the morning at the Meridian of Jerusalem the very day of the middle Equinox a Wednesday which is the day of the Creation of these two Planets De Trin. l. 4. c. 5. The day following March 25th which according to the ancient tradition of the Church reported by St. Augustine was the day of our Lords Incarnation was likewise the day of the first Phasis of the Moon and consequently it was the first day of the month according to the usage of the Hebrews and the first day of the sacred year which by the Divine institution must begin with the first month of the Spring and the first day of a great year the natural Epocha of which is the concourse of the middle Equinox and of the middle Conjunction of the Moon with the Sun This concourse terminates therefore the lunisolar periods of the preceding Ages and was an Epocha from whence began a new order of Ages Eclog. 4. according to the Oracle of the Sybil related by Virgil in these words Magnus ab integro Saeclorum nascitur ordo Jam nova progenies Coelo dimittitur alto This Oracle seems to answer the Prophecy of Isaiah Parvulus natus est nobis c. 9. v. 6. 7. where this new-born is called God and Father of future Ages Deus fortis Pater futuri Saeculi The Interpreters do remark in this Prophecy as a thing mysterious the extraordinary situation of a Mem final which is the Numerical Character of 600 in this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad multiplicandum where this Mem final is in the second place there being no other example in the whole Text of the Holy Scripture where ever a final Letter is placed only at the end of the words This Numerical Character of 600 in this situation might allude to the periods of 600 years of the Patriarchs which were to terminate at the accomplishment of the Prophecy which is the Epocha from whence we do at present compute the years of Jesus Christ XXIV The Epocha of the Ecclesiastical Equinoxes and of the vulgar Cycle of the Golden number THe Christians of the first Ages having remarked that the Jews of this time had forgot the antient Rules of the Hebrew years so that they celebrated Easter twice in one year as Constantine the Great attests in the Letter to the Churches do borrow the form of the Julian years re-established by Augustus Euseb de vlta Constantini lib. 3. c. 9. which are destributed by periods of 4 years three of which are common of 365 days and a Bissextile of 366 days and do surpass the lunar years by 11 days They denote therefore in the Julian Calender the day of the Equinox and the days of the Moon with their variation and they regulate it some by the Cycle of 8 years others by the Cycle of 19 years as it appears by the regulation of the Council of Caesarea in the year of Christ 196 and by the Canon of St. Hyppolytus and by that of St. Anatolius But afterwards the Council of Nice held in the year 325 having charged the Bishops of Alexandria as the most experienced in Astronomy to determine the time of Easter these Prelates made use of their Alexandrian Calendar where the year began with the 29th of August and for Epocha they took the lunar Cycles of 19 years the first Egyptian year of the Empire of Dioclesian because that the last day of the preceding year which was the 28th of August of the 284th year of Jesus Christ the new Moon happened near Noon at the Meridian of Alexandria By reckoning from this Epocha backward the Cycles of 19 years they come to the 28th of August in the year preceding the Epocha of Jesus Christ so that the first year of Jesus Christ is the second year of one of these Cycles 'T is thus that these Cycles are still computed at present since that Dionysius the Less transported the Cycles of the Moon from the Alexandrian Calendar to the Roman and that he began to compute the years from the Epocha of Jesus Christ instead of computing them from the Epocha of Dioclesian denoting the Equinox of the Spring on the 21st of March as it had been set down in the Egyptian Epocha For the Epocha of the lunar Cycles they might have taken the Equinoxial conjunction of the same year of Jesus Christ rather than the conjunction of the 28th of August of the former year and renew it after 616 years which reduce the new Moons to the same day of the Julian year and to the same day of the week which is what they demanded of the Victorian period but they thought only to confirm themselves to the rule of the Alexandrians which was the sole method to reconcile the Eastern and Western Church Thus these Rules have been followed to the past Age altho it has been long perceived that the new Moons thus regulated according to the Cycle of 19 years anticipated almost a day in 312 Julian years and that the Equinoxes anticipated about 3 days in 400 of these years XXV The solar Gregorian Period of 400 years ABout the end of the past Age the Anticipation of the Equinoxes since the Epocha chosen by the Alexandrians was
Preacher and those that do preach frequently not only at this time but during the whole course of the year do easily become rich Now it is this time which the Europeans have called the Lent of the Talapoins Of the Lent of the Talapoins and of their facility in fasting Their Fasting is to eat nothing from Noon unless they may chew Betel but when they do not fast they only eat Fruit in the Afternoon The Indians are naturally so sober that a Fast of Forty nay of an Hundred days appears not incredible to them Twist a Dutch Author in his Description of the Indies reports that Experience has certainly evinced that there are some Indians that can fast Twenty Thirty and Forty days without taking any thing but a little Liquor mixed with some bitter Wood reduced to Powder The Siameses have cited the example of a Talapoin whom they pretend to have fasted an hundred and seven days without eating any thing But when I sounded their opinion thereon I found that they attributed this Fast to Magick and to prove it to me they added that it was easie to live on the Grass of the Fields provided they breathed thereon and utter'd certain words which they understood not or which they would not inform me or which they said that others understood After the Rice-Harvest the Talapoins do go for three Weeks to watch in the Nights in the middle of the Fields The Watch of the Siameses in the Fields and the Esteem which the People makes thereof under small Huts of branches of Leaves ranged square and in the day they return to visit the Temple and to sleep in their Cells The Hut of the Superior stands in the middle of the others and higher They make no Fire in the Night to scare away the wild Beasts as all those that travel in the Woods of this Country us'd to do and as was done round the Tabanques wherein we lodged So that the People look upon it as a Miracle that the Talapoins are not devoured and I know not what precaution they use except that of enclosing themselves in a Park of Bambou But doubtless they chose places little exposed remote from the Woods and where the savage Beasts cannot come with Hunger but after having found a great deal of Food for it is the season wherein there is plenty of Forage on the ground The People admire also the security in which the Talapoins of the Woods do live For they have neither Convent nor Temple to retire into They think that the Tygers Elephants and Rhinoceros do respect them and lick their hands and feet when they find any one asleep but these may make a Fire of Bambou to defend themselves from these Animals they may lie in the closest Thickets and moreover though the people should find the remains of some man devoured it would never be presumed he was a Talapoin and when they could not doubt thereof they would presume that this Talapoin had been wicked and would not cease to believe that the Beasts respect the good And it must needs be that the Woods are not so dangerous as they report seeing that so many Families do seek Sanctuary there against the Government The Talapoins have a Chaplet I know not what the Talapoins do pretend either by this Watch or by their Lent I ignore also what the Chaplets of one Hundred and eight Grains on which they recite certain Balie words do mean Their Habit. They go with naked feet and bare-headed like the rest of the People round their Reins and Thighs they wear the Pagne of the Seculars but of yellow Linnen which is the colour of their Kings and of the Kings of China and they have no Muslin Shirt nor any Vest Their Habit consists of four pieces The first which they call Angsa is a kind of Shoulder Belt of yellow Linnen five or six Inches broad they wear it on their left Shoulder and button it with a single button on the right Hip and it descends not lower than the Hip. Over this Belt they put another great yellow cloath which is called the Pagne of the Talapoin and which they call Pa Schivon or the Cloth of several pieces because it ought to be patched in several places 'T is a kind of Scapulary which reaches down to the ground behind and before and which covering only the left Shoulder returns to the right Hip and leaves the two Arms and all the right Shoulder free Over the Pa Schivon is the Pa Pat. 'T is another cloth four or five Inches broad which they do likewise put over the left Shoulder but like a Hood it descends to the Navel before and as much behind as before It s colour is sometimes red the Sancrats and the most ancient Talapoins do wear it thus but the Angsa and the Pa Schivon can never be other than yellow To keep the Pa Pat and the Pa Schivon in a posture they girt the middle of their body with a Scarf of yellow Cloth which they call Rappacod and which is the fourth and last piece of their Habit. They have a little Iron-Bason for begging They shave all the Head and have a Screen in their hand When they go a begging they carry an Iron Bason to receive what is given them and they carry it in a Linnen Bag which hangs on the left side by two ends of a Rope hung like a Belt over the right Shoulder They shave all their Beard Head and Eyebrows and to defend themselves from the Sun they have the Talapat which is their little Vmbrella in form of a Screen as I have already said in the other part The Superior is forced to shave himself because no person can touch his head without showing him disrespect By the same reason a young Talapoin dares not to shave an old one but it is lawful for the old to shave the young I mean those Children whose Education is committed to them and who know not how to shave themselves Nevertheless when the Superior is very old it is necessary that he permit another to shave him and this other does it after having desired an express Permission In a word the Razors of Siam are of Copper The days on which they shave themselves are days of Devotion to the People The days on which they shave themselves are those of the new and full Moon and on these days the Talapoins and the People do fast that is to say they eat nothing from Noon The People abstain also on these days from going a Fishing not that Fishing is a work for they abstain not from any other Labor but because that in my opinion they esteem not Fishing wholly innocent as we shall see in the sequel And in fine the People on these days do carry unto the Convents some Alms which consist in Money Fruits Pagnes or Cattle If the Cattle are dead the Talapoins do eat them if they are alive they let them live and
Explication which I give and of the Determination of the Genus to the Species which I make in the beginning will not presently be understood but in the sequel it will be comprehended by the Connexion of things and by what necessarily results therefrom Concerning the Astronomical Epocha of this Method I Have endeavoured to discover what is the Epocha from whence they here begin to compute the Motions of the Sun and Moon and to what year what month and what day of our Kalender it refers for it is not treated of in this extract which supposes it either known or explained perhaps in the preceding Chapters from whence this extract has been taken seeing that without the knowledge of the Epocha it is absolutely impossible to practice this Method I have found that this Epocha is Astronomical and that it is different from the Civil which I have understood because it is here prescribed to begin to compute the Months of the Year current with the fifth Month in the Leap Year which consists of 13 Months and with the sixth Month in the common Year which consists of 12 Months For this would not be intelligible if they supposed not two different Epoches of Years the one whereof which must be the Astronomical begins sometimes in the fifth and sometimes in the sixth Month of the other which is the Civil That which likewise evinc'd to me that the Astronomical Epoche is different from the Civil Epocha not only in the Months but also in the Years is the Operation which is here made to find the Year of ones Nativity by substracting his Age from the number of the Years elaps'd since the Epocha for this Operation would be useless if they demand only the Year of the Birth after the Civil Epocha which is immediately known and which is compared to the Year current to know the Age of a Person This being supposed I have first searched out the Age to which this Astronomical Epocha may refer and having found in the Calculation of the Sun performed by this method that two Signs and twenty Degrees which are therein employed can only denote the place of the Zodiack where was found the Apogaeum of the Sun in the Epocha which Apogaeum must be in the twentieth Degree of Gemini I judged that this Epocha must be about the seventh Age where the Apogaeum of the Sun is found in the twentieth Degree of Gemini according to most Astronomical Tables Secondly having found that the number 621 which is intermixed in the Calculation of the Sun can only be the number of the days comprized between the Astronomical Epocha and the return of the Moon 's Apogaeum to the beginning of the Zodiack and that the number 3232 which is afterwards employed therein can be only the number of the Days during which this Apogaeum makes a Revolution I have confirmed that the Apogaeum of the Moon which in 621 Days makes two Signs and nine Degrees was in this Epocha in the 21 Degrees of Capricorn And because that the Moon 's Apogaeum by the Revolution it makes in eight Years three quarters returns to the same degree of the Zodiack twelve times in one Age I have distinguished the Years of the Age in which the Moon 's Apogaeum is found in this Degree and I have excluded the other Year Thirdly having found by the method here used for Calculating the place of the Sun that this Astronomical Epocha is very near the vernal Aequinox which in the seventh Age fell on the 20th or 21st of March Amongst these select Years I have found one in which the Moon 's Apogaeum arrived at this Degree of Capricorn about the 21st of March which is found but once in 62 Years wanting some Degrees and I have found that in the 638th Year of Jesus Christ the Apogaeum of the Moon was at the 21st Degree of Capricorn the 21st of March. Fourthly I have remarked that this Astronomical Epocha must have begun at a new Moon because the Lunar Months are reduced into Days to find the number of the Days from the Epocha and the value of the whole Months being deducted from the Sum of the Days the rest serves to find the Moon 's distance from the Sun In the 638th Year of Jesus Christ the Aequinoxial new Moon happened the 21st of March at three a Clock in the Morning at Siam when the Sun by its middle Motion ran through the first degree of Aries the Sun 's Apogaeum being in the 20th Degree of Gemini and the Moon 's in the 21st Degree of Capricorn This Day was likewise remarkable for a great Eclipse of the Sun which happened the same day but 14. Hours after the mean Conjunction Fifthly By the manner of finding the day of the week which is here observed it appears that the day of the Epocha was a Saturday and the 21st of March in the Year 638 was also a Saturday This likewise confirms the certainty of this Epocha and demonstrates the Knowledge and Judgment of those that have established it who contented not themselves with a Civil Epocha as other Astronomers have done but who have chosen an Astronomical one which was the Natural Principle of several Revolutions which could not begin again till after several Ages This Epocha is 5 Years and 278 Days distant from the Persian Epocha of Jesdegerdes the first year of which began on the 16th of June in the Year of Jesus Christ 632. Yet these Indian Rules are not taken from the Persian Tables related by Crisococa for these Tables do make the Sun 's Apogaeum two degrees more backward and the Moon 's Apogaeum above six degrees forwarder which agrees not so exactly with our modern Tables The Persian Tables do also make the Sun's Aequation 12 Minutes less and that of the Moon 4 Minutes greater which agrees better with the Moderns These Indian Rules are not drawn neither from the Tables of Ptolomy where the Sun 's Apogaeum is fixed to the 5th degree and a half of Gemini nor from the other Tables since made which have all this moveable Apogaeum It seems therefore that they have been invented by the Indians or that perhaps they have been taken from the Chinese Astronomy as may be conjectured from this that in this extract the Numbers are written from the top downwards after the manner of the Chineses but it may be that this way of writing the numbers might be common to these two Nations Having found the Astronomical Epocha of this method and the Relation it has with the Julian years we may rectifie the Epocha's of the motions of the Sun and Moon by the modern Tables by adding about a Minute a Year to the Sun 's Apogaeum and by correcting the other Periods Thus there will be no difficulty to reduce the Years and Months since the Epocha into days and if the Equations are likewise corrected conformably to the modern Tables we shall by the same Method find the place of the Sun and Moon with
by 12 the Quoent will be Natti itti The end of the Souriat Explication These three first Operations do serve to reduce the Moon 's distance from the Sun into minutes dividing it by 720 it is reduced to the 30 part of a Circle for 720 minutes are the 30th part of 21600 minutes which do make the whole circumference The ground of this division is the Moons diurnal motion from the Sun which is near the 30th part of the whole Circle They consider then the Position of the Moon not only in the Signs and in her stations but also in the 30th parts of the Zodiack which do each consist of 12 degrees and are called itti dividing the remainder by 12 they have the minutes or sixtieth parts of an itti which do each consist of 12 minutes of degrees which the Moon removes from the Sun in the sixtieth part of a day these sixtieth parts are called natti itti Reflexions upon the Indian Rules I. Of the particular Epocha's of the Indian Method HAving explained the Rules comprised in the preceding Sections and found our several Periods of Years Months and Days which they suppose It remains to us particularly to explain divers particular Epocha's which we have found in the numbers employed in this Method which being compared together may serve to determine the Year the Month the Day the Hour and the Meridian of the Astronomical Epocha which is not spoken of in the Indian Rules which suppose it known By the Rules of the I. Section is sought the number of the Lunary Months elapsed from the Astronomical Epocha The Epocha which they suppose in this Section is therefore that of the Lunar Months and consequently it must be at the Hour of the middle Conjunction from whence begins the Month wherein the Epocha is By the Rules of the II. Section they first reduce the Lunar Months elapsed from the Epocha into Artificial Days of 30 per mensem which are shorter than the Natural Days from one Noon to the other by 11 703 a Day that is to say by 22 Minutes 32 Seconds of an Hour These Artificial Days have therefore their beginning at the new Moons and at every thirtieth part of the Lunar Month but the Natural Days do always begin naturally at Midnight under the same Meridian The Term of the Artificial Days agrees not then with the Term of the Natural Days in the same Hour and same Minute unless when the Month or one of the 30 parts of the Month begins at Midnight under the Meridian given at the choice of the Astronomer After this common beginning the end of the Artificial Day prevents the end of the Natural Day under the same Meridian 11 703 a Day in which does then consist the Anamaan which always augments one 703d of a Day to every eleventh part of the Day until that the number of the 703 parts amounts to 703 or surpasses this number for then they take 703 of these parts for a Day whereby the number of the Artificial Days surpasses the number of the Natural Days elaps'd since the Epocha and the remainder if there is any is the Anamaan The day of this meeting or concourse of the term of the Artificial days with the term of the Natural Days under the Meridian which is chosen is always a new Epocha of the Anamaan which is reduced to nothing or to less than 11 after having attained this number 703 which arrives only at every Period of 64 Days as it appears in dividing 703 by 11 and more exactly eleven times in 703 Days At every time given for the Epocha of the Anamaan they then take the Day of the preceeding rencounter of the beginning of the Artificial Days with the beginning of the Natural Days which under the same Meridian happens only five or six times in a Year Seeing then that in the fifth Article of the II. Section they add 650 elevenths of a Day to those which are elapsed from the Epocha of the I. Section they suppose that this Epocha was proceeded from another Epocha which could only be that of the Anamaan of 650 elevenths of a Day that is to say of 59 Days 1 11â— which do give 650 703 of a Day for the Anamaan under the Meridian of the East Indies to which the Rules of this II. Section are accommodated which shows that under this Meridian the middle Conjunction which gave beginning to the Artificial Day since the Astronomical Epocha was 650 703 of a Day before the end of the Natural Day in which this conjunction happen'd And consequently that it happen'd at one a Clock 49 Minutes in the morning under the Meridian which is supposed in the same Section but in the 9th Article of the 10th Section they deduct 40 Minutes from the motion of the Moon and in the 8th Article of the 7th Section they deduct 3 minutes from the motion of the Sun which removes the Moon 37 minutes from the Sun at the hour that they suppose the middle Conjunction of the Moon with the Sun in the II. Section Wherefore I have judged that the 40 minutes taken from the motion of the Moon and the 3 minutes taken from the motion of the Sun do result from some difference between the meridian to which these Rules were accommodated at the beginning and of another meridian to which they have since reduced them so that under the meridian supposed in the II. Section the new Moon in the Epocha arrived at one a Clock 49 minutes in the morning but under the meridian which is supposed in the 9th Article of the X. Section at the same hour of I. and 49 minutes after midnight the Moon was distant from the Sun 37 minutes which it makes in an hour 13 minutes therefore under the Meridian supposed in the 9th Article of the X. Section the new Moon could not arrive till 3 a Clock 2 minutes after midnight The meridian to which these Rules have been reduced would therefore be more oriental than the meridian chosen at the beginning by 1 hour 13 minutes that is to say 18 degrees and a quarter and having supposed that they have reduced them to the meridian of Siam they would be accommodated from the beginning almost to the meridian of Narsinga What more convinces that this substraction of 40 minutes from the motion of the Moon and of three minutes from the motion of the Sun is caused from the difference of the meridians of 1 hour 13 minutes is that in 1 hour 13 minutes the Moon makes 40 minutes and the Sun 3. 'T is therefore by the same difference of 1 hour 13 minutes that they have deducted 3 minutes from the motion of the Sun and 40 minutes from the motion of the Moon Without this correspondence of what they have deducted from the motion of the Sun with what they have taken from the motion of the Moon which appears to have for foundation the same difference of time and consequently the same difference
of meridians one might have reason to believe that the substraction of these 40 minutes has been made a long time after these first rules because that it is perceived in process of time that the motion of the Moon was not exactly so quick as it results from the preceding Rules which do make the lunar month about three quarters of a second shorter than the modern Tables and this difference amounts to 1 hour and 13 minutes in 450 years or thereabouts Thus if 450 years after the Epocha they had compared the first rules to the observations one might have judged that the Moon retarded in respect of these first rules 1 hour and 13 minutes or 40 minutes of a degree But this difference which is always the same when attributed to the difference of the meridians would not be always the same if it depended on the motion of the Moon for it would augment one minute to 12 years to which 't would be necessary to have regard in the Correction of these Rules II. The Determination of the Astronomical Epocha of the Indian Method SEeing that these Indian Rules have been brought from Siam and that the Civil year of the Siameses begins in the season that we think it ought to begin according to the Rules of the I. Section as we shall show in the sequel it is reasonable to suppose that the meridian to which these Rules have been reduced by the additions mentioned in the VII and X. Sections is the meridian of Siam therefore by the calculation which we have made the new Moon which they have taken for the Epocha must happen at 3 a Clock in the Morning at Siam As the lunar month of this method agrees to near a Second with the lunary month established by all the European Astronomers it may be supposed that this hour of the new Moon of the Epocha is very precise since it may have been deduced from the Observations of the Eclipses of the Moon which are much more easie to determine than all the other Phaenomena of the Planets We may therefore make use of the common Tables to seek the new Moons which happen'd about the seventh Age at three in the morning in the meridian of Siam the difference of which from the meridian of Paris is very exactly known to us by several observations of the Eclipses of the Moon and the Satellites of Jupiter which the Jesuites sent by the King into the East in quality of his Majestie 's Mathematicians have made at Siam and by the Observations of the same Eclipses made at the same time at Paris in the Royal Observatory by the Comparison of which Observations it is found that the difference of the meridians of these two Cities is 6 hours 34 minutes To this Character of time we might add the Circumstance of the middle Aequinox of the Spring which according to the Hypothesis of the IV. Section must happen at 11 hours 11 minutes after the midnight which followed the middle Conjunction of the Moon with the Sun taken for the Epocha according to what has been said on the 5th Article of the IV. Section where they deduct 373 800 of a day that is to say 11 hours and 11 minutes from the days elapsed since the Epocha which distinguishes as much as the Krommethiapponne which we have declared to be the time elapsed from the Suns return to the the point of the Zodiack from whence is taken the motion of the Sun and Moon which must be the Aequinoxial point of the Spring But it must not be pretended that the modern Tables do give the very hour of this Aequinox for they do not exactly agree together in the Aequinoxes by reason of the great difficulty which is found to determine them precisely They agree not with the antient Tables of Ptolomy in the middle Aequinoxes to near 3 or 4 days wherefore it is sufficient that we found by the modern Tables a new Moon to happen at Siam at 3 a Clock in the morning within a day or two of the middle Aequinox of the Spring found by the modern Tables The place of the Suns Apogaeum which according to what we have drawn from the Rules of the 2d and 3d Articles of the VIII Section was at the time of the Astronomical Epocha in the 20th degree of the sign Gemini denotes the Age wherein it is necessary to seek this new Aequinoxial Moon which according to the modern Tables was about the seventh after the Nativity of Jesus Christ It is true that as these Rules give not motion to the Sun 's Apogaeum it may be doubted whether it was not in this degree at the time of the Epocha or at the time of the Observations upon which these Rules have been made But the Age of this Epocha is likewise determined by another Character joyned to the former 'T is the place of the Moon 's Apogaeum which according to what we have drawn from the 2d and 3d Articles of the VI. Section was at the time of the Epocha in the 20th degree of Capricorn and to which these Rules do give a motion conformable to that which our Tables do give it altho they agree not together in the Epoches of the Apogaea but to one or two degrees In fine the day of the Week must be a Saturday in the Epocha seeing that according to the 3d Section the first day after the Epocha was a Sunday and this circumstance joyned to what has been said that the same day was near the Equinox gives the last determination to the Epocha We have therefore sought a new Equinoxial Moon to which all these Characters do agree and we have found that they agree to the New Moon which happened in the 638th year after the Birth of Jesus Christ on the 21 of March according to the Julian form on Saturday at 3 a Clock in the morning in the Meridian of Siam This middle conjunction of the Moon with the Sun according to the Rudolphine Tables which are now most used happen'd on this day at Siam on the very same hour the reduction of the meridians being made according to our Observations And according to these Tables 't was 16 hours after the middle Aequinox of the Spring the Sun 's Apogaeum being at 19 degrees ¼ of Gemini the Moon 's Apogaeum 21 degrees ½ of Capricorn and the Node descending from the Moon at 4 degrees of Aries so that this Aequinoxial Conjunction had also this in particular that it was Ecliptick being arrived at so little distance from one of the Nodes of the Moon This Astronomical Epocha of the Indians being thus determined by so many Characters which cannot agree to any other time by these Indian Rules are found the middle Conjunctions of the Moon with the Sun about the time of this Epocha with as much exactness as by the modern Tables amongst which these are some which for this time do give the same middle distance between the Sun and the Moon to
their Sommona-Codam is plac'd therein This Festival is likewise accompany'd with races of Oxen Wrestling and Boxing and several other Diversions as of Wrestlers and Men that fight with their Elbow and Fist In Boxing they guard their Hand with three or four rounds of Cord instead of the Copper Rings which those of Laos do use in such Combats The Running of Oxen is perform'd in this manner A Race of Oxen. They mark out a Plat of 500 Fathom in length and two in breadth with four Trunks which are planted at the four Corners to serve as Boundaries and it is round these Limits that the Coutse is run In the middle of this place they erect a Scaffold for the Judges and the more precisely to mark out the middle which is the place from whence the Oxen were to start they do plant a very high Post against the Scaffold Sometimes 't is only a single Ox which runs against another the one and the other being guided by two Men running a foot which do hold the Reins or rather the String put into their Noses the one on the one side and the other on the other side and other Men are posted at certain distances to ease those which run But most frequently it is a Yoke of Oxen fasten'd to a Plough which runs against another Yoke of Oxen joined to another Plough some Men guide them on the right side and on the left as when it is only a single Ox which runs against another But besides this it is necessary that each Plough be so well sustained in the Air by a Man running that it never touch the ground for fear it retard the Animals that draw it and these Men which thus support the Ploughs are more frequently reliev'd than the others Now tho' the Ploughs run both after the same manner turning always to the right round the space which I have described they set not out from the same place The one starts at one side of the Scaffold and the other at the other to run reciprocally one after the other Thus at the beginning of their Course they look from opposite places and they are distant one from the other half a Circle or half the space over which they were to run Yet they run after the same manner as I have said turning several times round the four Boundaries which I have mentioned till the one overtakes the other The Spectators are nevertheless all round yet is it not necessary to have Bars to hinder from approaching too near These Courses are sometimes the subjects of Bettings and the Lords do breed and train up small but well-proportion'd Oxen for this Exercise and instead of Oxen they do likewise make use of Buffalo's A Race of Balons I know not whether I ought to rank amongst the Shows the Diversion which was given us of a Race of Balons for in respect of the Siameses it is rather a Sport than a Show They chuse two Balons the most equal in all things as is possible and they divide themselves into two Parties to bett Then the Captains do beat a precipitate measure not only by knocking with the end of a long Bambou which they have in their hands but by their Cryes and the Agitation of their whole Body The Crew of Rowers excites itself also by several redoubled Acclamations and the Spectator which betts hollows also and is in no less motion than if he really rowed Oftentimes they commit not to the Captains the care of animating the Rowers but two of the Bettors do execute this Office themselves The excessive love of Gaming The Siameses love Gaming to such an Excess as to ruine themselves and lose their Liberty or that of their Children for in this Country whoever has not wherewith to satisfy his Creditor sells his Children to discharge the Debt and if this satisfies not he himself becomes a Slave The Play which they love best is Tick-Tack which they call Saca and which they have learnt perhaps from the Portuguese for they play it like them and us They play not at Cards and their other hazardous Sports I know not but they play at Chesse after our and the Chinese way At the end of this Work I will insert the Game of Chesse of the Chineses The Siameses love to smoke Tobacco Tobacco-Smoke for they take none in Snush is also one of their greatest pleasures and the Women even the most considerable are entirely addicted thereunto They have Tobacco from Manille China and Siam and tho' these sorts of Tobacco are very strong the Siameses do smoke it without any weakning it but the Chineses and Moors do draw the Smoke through water to diminish the strength thereof The method of the Chineses is to take a little water into their mouth and then proceed to fill their mouth with Tobacco-Smoke and afterwards they spit out the water and the Smoke at the same time The Moors make use of a singular Instrument the Description and Figure of which you will find at the end of this Work The common life of a Siamese Such are the Diversions of the Siameses to which may be added the Domestic They love their Wives and Children exceedingly and it appears that they are greatly beloved by them Whilst the Men acquit themselves of the six months work which they every one yearly owe to the Prince it belongs to their Wife their Mother or their Children to maintain them And when they have satisfy'd the Service of their King and they are return'd home the generality know not unto what business to apply themselves being little accustomed to any particular Profession by reason the Prince employs them indifferently to all as it pleaseth him Hence it may be judged how lazy the ordinary life of a Siamese is He works not at all when he works not for his King he walks not abroad he hunts not he does nothing almost but continue sitting or lying eating playing smoking and sleeping His Wife will wake him at 7 a clock in the morning and will serve him with Rice and Fish He will fall asleep again hereupon and at Noon he will eat again and will sup at the end of the day Between these two last Meals will be his day Conversation or Play will spend all the rest The Women plough the Land they sell and buy in the Cities But it is time to speak of the Affairs and serious Occupations of the Siameses that is to say of their Marriages of the Education they give to their Children of the Studies and Professions to which they apply themselves CHAP. VII Concerning the Marriage and Divorce of the Siameses 'T Is not the Custom in this Country to permit unto Maids the Conversation of young men The Mothers chastise them when they surprize them so The care they have of keeping their Daughters but the Girls forbear not to get out when they can and this is not impossible towards the Evening They are capable
This is thus practised in all the Courts of Asia but it is not true neither at Siam nor perhaps in any part of the East that the Queen has any Province to govern 'T is easie also to comprehend that if the King loves any of his Ladies more than the rest he causes her to remove from the Jealousie and harsh Usage of the Queen At Siam they continually take Ladies for the service of the Vang The King of Siam takes the Daughters of his Subjects for his Palace when he pleases or to be Concubines to the King if this Prince makes use thereof But the Siameses deliver up their Daughters only by force because it is never to see them again and they redeem them so long as they can for Money So that this becomes a kind of Extortion for they designedly take a great many Virgins meerly to restore them to their Parents who redeem them The King of Siam has few Mistresses that is to say eight or ten in all He has few Ministresses not out of Continency but Parsimony I have already declared that to have a great many Wives is in this Country rather Magnificence than Debauchery Wherefore they are very much surprized to hear that so great a King as ours has no more than one Wife that he had no Elephants and that his Lands bear no Rice as we might be when it was told us that the King of Siam has no Horses nor standing Forces and that his Country bears no Corn nor Grapes altho' all the Relations do so highly extol the Riches and Power of the Kingdom of Siam The Queen hath her Elephants and her Balons The Queen's House and some Officers to take care of her and accompany her when she goes abroad but none but her Women and Eunuchs do see her She is conceal'd from all the rest of the People and when she goes out either on an Elephant or in a Balon it is in a Chair made up with Curtains which permit her to see what she pleases and do prevent her being seen And Respect commands that if they cannot avoid her they should turn their back to her by prostrating themselves when she passes along Besides this she has her Magazine her Ships and her Treasures Her Magazine and her Ships She exercises Commerce and when we arrived in this Country the Princess whom I have reported to be treated like a Queen was exceedingly embroiled with the King her Father because that he reserved to himself alone almost all the Foreign Trade and that thereby she found herself deprived thereof contrary to the ancient Custom of the Kingdom Daughters succeed not to the Crown they are hardly look'd upon as free Of the Succession to the Crown and the Causes which render it uncertain 'T is the eldest Son of the Queen that ought always to succeed by the Law Nevertheless because that the Siameses can hardly conceive that amongst Princes of near the same Rank the most aged should prostrate himself before the younger it frequently happens that amongst Brethren tho' they be not all Sons of the Queen and that amongst Uncles and Nephews the most advanced in Age is preferred or rather it is Force which always decides it The Kings themselves contribute to render the Royal Succession uncertain because that instead of chusing for their Successor the eldest Son of the Queen they most frequently follow the Inclination which they have for the Son of some one of their Concubines with whom they were enamour'd The occasion which tendred the Hollanders Masters of Bantam 'T is upon this account that the King of Bantam for example has lost his Crown and his Liberty He endeavoured to get one of his Sons whom he had by one of his Concubines to be acknowledged for his Successor before his Death and the eldest Son which he had by the Queen put himself into the hands of the Hollanders They set him upon the Throne after having vanquished his Father whom they still keep in Prison if he is not dead but for the reward of this Service they remain Masters of the Port and of the whole Commerce of Bantam Of the Succession to the Kingdom of China The Succession is not better regulated at China though there be an express and very ancient Law in favour of the eldest Son of the Queen But what Rule can there be in a thing how important soever it be when the Passions of the Kings do always seek to imbroil it All the Orientals in the choice of a Governor adhere most to the Royal Family and not to a certain Prince of the Royal Family uncertain in the sole thing wherein all the Europeans are not In all the rest we vary every day and they never do Always the same Manners amongst them always the same Laws the same Religion the same Worship as may be judged by comparing what the Ancients have writ concerning the Indians with what we do now see Of the King of Siams Wardrobe I have said that 't is the Women of the Palace which dress the King of Siam but they have no charge of his Wardrobe he has Officers on purpose The most considerable of all is he that touches his Bonnet altho he be not permitted to put it upon the Head of the King his Master 'T is a Prince of the Royal blood of Camboya by reason that the King of Siam boasts in being thence descended not being able to vaunt in being of the race of the Kings his Predecessors The Title of this Master of the Wardrobe is Oc-ya Out haya tanne which sufficiently evinces that the Title of Pa-ya does not signifie Prince seeing that this Prince wears it not Under him Oc-Pra Rayja Vounsa has the charge of the cloaths Rayja or Raja or Ragi or Ratcha are only an Indian term variously pronounced which signifies King or Royal and which enters into the composition of several Names amongst the Indians CHAP. XIV Of the Customs of the Court of Siam and of the Policy of its Kings The Hours of Council THe common usage of the Court of Siam is to hold a Council twice a day about Ten a clock in the Morning and about Ten in the Evening reckoning the hours after our fashion The division of the day and night according to the Siameses As for them they divide the day into Twelve hours from the Morning to the Night The Hours they call Mong they reckon them like us and give them not a particular name to each as the Chineses do As for the Night they divide it into four Watches which they call Tgiam and it is always broad Day at the end of the Fourth The Latins Greeks Jews and other people have divided the Day and Night after the same manner Their Clock The People of Siam have no Clock but as the Days are almost equal there all the Year it is easie for them to know what Hour it is by
die about the Temple and they eat them only when they die of themselves Near certain Temples there is also a Pond for the living Fish which is offer'd to the Temple and besides these Festival days common to all the Temples The People love to adorn themselves to go to the Temples and their Charity to Animals every Temple has a particular one appointed to receive the Alms as if it was the Feast of its Dedication for I could not learn what it is The People voluntarily assist at these Festivals and make a show with their new Cloaths One of their greatest Charities is to give Liberty to some Animals which they buy of those that have taken them in the Fields What they give to the Idol they offer not immediately to the Idol but to the Talapoins and they present it to the Idol either by holding it in their hand before the Idol or by laying it upon the Altar and in a little time after they take it away and convert it to their own uses Sometimes the People offer up lighted Tapers which the Talapoins do fasten to the knees of the Statue and this is the reason why one of the knees of a great many Idols is ungilt As for bloody Sacrifices they never offer up any on the contrary they are prohibited from killing any thing At the Full Moon of the fifth Month The Siameses do wash their Idols their Talapoins and their Parents the Talapoins do wash the Idol with perfumed waters but respect permits them not to wash its head They afterwards wash the Sancrat And the People go also to wash the Sancrats and the other Talapoins And then in particular Families the Children do wash their Parents without having regard to the Sex for the Son and the Daughter do equally wash the Father and the Mother the Grandfather and the Grandmother This Custom is observed also in the Country of Laos with this Singularity that the King himself is washed in the River The Talapoins have no Clock The hour on which the Talapoins do wash themselves and they wash themselves only when it is light enough to be able to discern the veins of their hands for fear lest if they should wash themselves earlier in the morning they should in walking kill any Insect without perceiving it This is the reason why they wash later in the shortest days tho' their Bell fails not to wake them before day Being raised they go with their Superior to the Temple for two hours They go to the Temples in the morning There they sing or repeat out of the Balie and what they sing is written on the Leass of a Tree somewhat longish and fasten'd at one of the ends as I have said in discoursing of the Tree which bears them The People have not any Prayer-Book The posture of the Talapoins whilst they sing is to sit cross-leg'd and continually to toss their Talipat or Fan as if they would continually fan themselves so that their Fan goes or comes at each Syllable which they pronounce and they pronounce them all at equal times and after the same tone In entering in and going out of the Temple they prostrate themselves three times before the Statue and the Seculars do observe the same but the one and the other do remain in the Temple sitting cross-leg'd and not always prostrate In going from Prayer the Talapoins go into the City to beg Alms for an hour Then to begging on which alone they do not always live but they never go out of the Convent and never re-enter without going to salute their Superior before whom they prostrated themselves to touch the ground with their Forehead and because that the Superior sits generally cross-leg'd they take one of his Feet with both their hands and put it on their head To crave Alms they stand at the Gates without saying any thing and they pass on after a little time if nothing is given them It is rare that the People sends them away without giving them and besides this their Parents never fail them The Convents have likewise some Gardens and cultivated Lands and Slaves to plough them All their Lands are free from Taxes and the Prince touches them not altho' he has the real property thereof if he divests not himself by writing which he almost never does At their return from begging the Talapoins do breakfast if they will How they fill up the day and are not always regular in presenting to the Idol what they eat tho' they do it sometimes after the manner that I have related Till Dinner-time they study or employ themselves as to them seems meet and at Noon they dine After Dinner they read a Lecture to the little Talapoins and sleep and at the declining of the day they sweep the Temple and do there sing as in the morning for two hours after which they lie down If they eat in the evening it is only Fruit and tho' their day's work seems full by what I have said they cease not to walk in the City after Dinner for their pleasure Besides the Slaves which the Convents may have The secular Servants of the Talapoins they have each one or two Servants which they call Tapacaou and which are really Seculars tho' they be habited like the Talapoins excepting that their Habit is white and not yellow They receive the money which is given to the Talapoins because the Talapoins cannot touch it without sinning they have the care of the Gardens and Lands which the Convent may have and in a word they act in the Convents for the Talapoins whatever the Talapoins conceive cannot be done by themselves as we shall see in the Sequel CHAP. XVIII Of the Election of the Superior and of the Reception of the Talapoins and Talapoinesses The Election of the Superior WHen the Superior is dead be he Sancrat or not the Convent elects another and ordinarily it chuses the oldest Talapoin of the House or at least the most learned How a Secular does who builds a Temple and begins a Convent How a Talapoin is admitted If a particular person builds a Temple he agrees with some old Talapoin at his own choice to be the Superior of the Convent which is built round this Temple as other Talapoins come thither to inhabit for he builds no Talapoins Lodging before-hand If any one would make himself a Talapoin he begins with agreeing with some Superior that would receive him into his Convent and because there is none but a Sancrat as I have said can give him the Habit he goes to demand it of some Sancrat if the Superior with whom he would remain is not himself a Sancrat and the Sancrat appoints him an hour some few days after and for the Afternoon Whoever should oppose him would sin and as this Profession is gainful and it lasts not necessarily the whole life the Parents are always very glad to see their Children
an Astronomer of the Twelfth Age the Indians do add to the year of 365 days the fourth part of a day and the fifth part of an hour when they speak of the year in which the Sun returns to the same Star This year consists then of 365 days 6 hours and 12′ and it agrees to near 36 seconds with the year that we found by the Hypothesis of the IV. Section This Author adds that they who speak of the year according to which the Indians do regulate their Feasts do alledge that from the fourth part there results a day more in 320 years Ex quarta plus 320 annis diem exurgere which he explains after a manner which cannot subsist This year saith he is greater than our common year by one fourth 23 seconds and 30 thirds which in 353 years do make a day The means of drawing a reasonable sense from this explication is not evident For a day divided in three hundred fifty three years gives to each year 4 minutes 4″ 45‴ and not 23″ 30‴ The true sense of these words Ex quarta plus 320 annis diem exurgere is in my opinion that 320 years of 365 days and a quarter do by one whole day surpass 320 of these Indian years One day divided in 320 years gives to each 4 minutes 30 seconds which being deducted from 365 and a quarter do leave 365 days 5 hours 55 minutes and 30 seconds which will be the greatness of the year which regulates the Indian Feasts This year exceeds not but by 16 seconds the greatness of the year which we have found by the comparison of the Hypotheses of the I. and II. Section of the Indian Rules wherefore there is no reason to doubt but it is this which is here treated of IX The Epocha of the Synodical solar years of the Indians THis sort of solar years drawn from the rules of the two first Sections may be called Synodical because that it results from the Equality which is supposed to be between 19 of these solar years and 235 lunar months which terminate at the Conjunction of the Moon with the Sun For the Epocha of these years may be taken the day and hour of the middle Conjunction of the Moon with the Sun which happen'd the very day of the Astronomical Epocha to near a day of the middle Equinox of the Spring tho some may infer from the 5th 6th and 8th Articles of the II. Section that for the Epocha of these years they take the minute which immediately follows this middle Conjunction at the Meridian to which the rules of this Section were accommodated Thus in particular calculations there will be no more need of the Operation prescribed in the 5th Article of the II. Section which is founded on the difference which was between the instant of this middle Conjunction and the midnight following at a particular Meridian more occidental than Siam nor of the Operations prescribed in the 8th Article of the VII Section and at the 9th Article of the X. Section which we have judged to denote the minutes of the motion of the Sun and Moon between the Meridian of Siam and the Meridian to which the rules of the II. Section had been accommodated and it will suffice to have had regard to these three Articles once for all The Epocha of these Synodical years will therefore be the 21st of March in the 638th year of Jesus Christ at 3 a clock 2 minutes in the morning at the Meridian of Siam The greatness of these years according to the VII Chapter of these Reflexions consisting of 365 days 5 hours 55′ 13″ 46‴ 5″″ we shall find the beginning of the following years in the Julian years by the continual addition of 5 hours 55′ 13″ 46‴ 5″″ deducting a day from the summ of the days which results from this addition in the Bissextile years thus we shall find the beginnings of these solar Synodical years the dates of which we have examin'd as we have here calculated them at the Meridian of Siam with the hours computed after midnight   In the Julian Years   Days H. M.  1683 March 17 21 57 Biss 1684 March 17 3 52  1685 March 17 9 47  1686 March 17 15 42  1687 March 17 21 38 Biss 1688 March 17 3 33 Astronomical years compleat In the Gregorian years  Days H. M. 1045 March 27 21 57 1046 March 27 3 52 1047 March 27 9 47 1048 March 27 15 42 1049 March 27 21 38 1050 March 27 3 33 These beginnings of years happen a day and a half before the middle Equinoxes of the Spring according to Ptolomy and five days and a half before the same Equinoxes according to the moderns wherefore they may be taken for a kind of middle Equinoxes of the Indians The first new Moon after the beginnings of these solar Synodical years must be the fifth of the Civil year when the Intercalation precedes these beginnings as it happen'd in the year 1685 and 1688 and it must be the sixth of the Civil year in the other years These are the first new Moons since the Equinoxes of this sort calculated for the preceding years Astronomical years compleat Gregorian years current 1045  1683 1046 Biss 1684 1047  1685 1048  1686 1049  1687 1050 Biss 1688 Solar Astronomical years current The first Conjunctions of the Astronomical years current   Afternoon  Days H. M. 1046 April 25 22 41 1047 April 14 7 30 1048 April 3 16 18 1049 April 22 14 50 1050 April 11 22 38 1051 March 31 7 27 Of the Indian Period of the 19 years TO know the first Conjunctions of the solar synodical Indian years in our Calendar it is sufficient to calculate the beginnings of the year from 19 to 19 years after the Èpocha For every nineteenth solar synodical year from the Epocha ends with the middle Conjunction of the Moon with the Sun from whence begins the twentieth year The greatness of this period is found by resolving 19 years into lunar months by the 3d 5th 6th and 7th Articles of the I Section and by resolving the lunar months into days by the 2d 4th 6th and 8th Articles of the II Section and in fine by reducing the fraction of the days called Anamaan into hours minutes seconds and thirds and by this means it will be found that the Indian period of 19 years consists of 6939 days 16 hours 29 minutes 21 seconds 35 thirds Tho this Indian Period of 19 years agrees in the number of the lunar months which it comprehends with the periods of Numa Meton and Calippus and with our Cycle of the Golden number as we have remarked in the Explication of the I. Section yet it is different in the number of the hours That of Meto which contains 6940 days is longer by 7 hours 30 minutes 38 seconds 25 thirds than the Indian That of Calippus and of our golden number which contain
mounted to 10 days and that of the new Moons in the same years of the lunar Cycle continued without interruption was mounted to 4 days wherefore in several Councils there was discourse concerning the manner of correcting these defects and in fine Pope Gregory XIII after having communicated his design to the Christian Princes and to the most famous Universities and having understood their Advice deducted 10 days from the year 1582 and reduced the Equinox to the day of the year wherein it had been at the time of the Epocha chosen by the Deputies of the Council of Nice He established also a period of 400 years shorter by 3 days than 400 Julian years making common the hundred years for the reserve of each 400 to compute from the year 1600 or which amounts to the same thing to reckon from the Epocha of Jesus Christ These periods of 400 Gregorian years reduce the Sun to the same points of the Zodiac to the same days of the month and of the week and to the same hours under the same Meridian the greatness of the year being supposed 365 days 5 hours 49′ 12″ According to the modern Observations in the hundred Bissextiles the middle Equinox happens the 21st of March at 20 hours after noon at the Meridian of Rome and the 96th after the hundredth Bissextile it happens the 21st of March 2 hours 43 minutes after noon which is the Equinox that happens the soonest But the 303d year after the hundredth Bissextile the middle Equinox happens the 23d of March at 7 hours 12 minutes after noon which is the slowest of all the rest By these Epocha's and by his greatness of the year it is easie perpetually to find the middle Equinoxes of the Gregorian Calendar XXVI The Rule of the Gregorian Epacts IN the Gregorian correction they interrupt not the succession of the Cycles of 19 years drawn from the ancient Alexandrian Epocha as they might have done but they observe on what day of the Moon the Gregorian year ends at every year of the Alexandrian Cycle This number of the days of the Moon at the end of a year is the Epact of the following year 'T is found that after the correction of the first year of the Cycle the Epact is 1. Every year it is augmented by 11 days but after the 19th year it is augmented by 12 always deducting 30 when it surpasses this number and taking the rest for the Epact which is done in this Age. They observe also the Variation which the Epacts do make from Age to Age in the very years of the Ancient lunar Cycle and they find that in 2500 Julian years they augment 8 days which supposes the lunar month of 29 days 12 hours 44′ 3″ 10‴ 41″″ Greg. Calend. c. 2. Explic. Calend. Greg. c. 11. n. 10. But to find the Gregorian Epacts from Age to Age they made three different Tables of which it was judged the Construction could not be clearly explained but in a Book apart which was not finished till twenty years after the correction 'T was thought at first that the whole Variation of the Gregorian Epacts was included in a period of 300000 years But this not being found conformable to the project of the correction they were forc'd to have recourse to some difficult equations of which there is not found any determin'd period XXVII A new lunisolar and Paschal Period TO supply this defect and to find the Gregorian Epacts for future Ages without Tables we do make use of a lunisolar period of 1600 years which has for Epocha the Equinoxial Conjunction of the year of Jesus Christ and which reduces the new Moons since the correction to the same day of the Gregorian year to the same day of the week and almost to the same hour of the day under the same Meridian According to this period we give to each period of 400 years since Jesus Christ 9 days of Equinoxial Epact by deducting 29 when it surpasses this number and we add 8 days to the Equinoxial Epact since the correction to have the Civil Gregorian Epact by deducting 30 when the summ surpasses this number At every hundredth year not Bissextile we diminish the Equinoxial Epact 5 days in respect of the hundredth preceding and we take every hundreth year for Epocha of 5 periods of 19 years to find the Augmentation of the Epacts for an Age at every year of the Cycle after the accustomed manner Thus to have the Equinoxial Epact of the year 1600 which is distant from the Epocha of Jesus Christ 4 periods of 400 years multiplying 4 by 9 there is 36 from whence having deducted 29 there remains 7 the Equinoxial Epact of the year 1600 which shews that the middle Equinox of the year 1600 happen'd 7 days after the middle Conjunction of the Moon with the Sun adding thereunto 8 days there are 15 which is the Civil Gregorian Epact of the year 1600 Expl. Cal. p. 420. as it is set down in the Table of the Moveable Gregorian Feasts It is evident that the Equinoxial Epact of the year 11600 which terminates this period must be 0. But to find it by the same method since that the year 11600 is removed from the Epocha of Jesus Christ 29 periods of 400 years multiplying 29 by 9 and dividing the product by 29 the quotient is 9 and the remainder 0 for the Equinoxial period Adding 8 there is the Civil Gregorian Epact of the year 11600 which will be 8 as Clavius had found it by the Gregorian Tables in the 168th page of the Explication of the Calendar which demonstrates the conformity of the Epacts of the future Ages found by the means of this period after a method so easie with the Gregorian Epacts found by the means of three Tables of the Gregorian Calendar If the hours and minutes of these Equinoxial Epacts in the 400 years are also demanded thereunto shall be always added 8 hours and besides ⅓ and 1 1 10 of as many hours as there are whole days in the Epact and a third of as many minutes Thus for the year 1600 whose Equinoxial Epact is 7 days one third of 7 hours is 2 h 20′ a tenth is 0 h 42′ a third of 7 minutes is 2′ the summ added to 7 days 8 hours makes 7 days 11 h 4′ the Equinoxial Epact of the year 1600. Deducting this Epact from the time of the middle Equinox which in 1600 happened the 21 of March at 20 hours after noon at Rome the middle conjunction preceding will be on the 14th of March at 8 h 56′ adding thereunto half a lunar month which is 14 days 18 h 22′ the middle opposition will be found on the 29th of March at 3 h 18′ In the Table of the moveable Feasts Expl. Cal. p. 420. where the minutes are neglected it is set down on the 29th of March at 3 hours To have by hours and minutes the Equinoxial Epact in the hundreds not Bissextiles from the Epact