a great deal more exactness We will give this Correction with the Supplement of what is wanting in these Rules after that we have explained them Rules to find the place of the Sun and Moon at the time of any Person 's Birth I. 1st SET down the Aera Explication 1st THE Aera in this place is the number of the years since the Astronomical Epocha from whence is taken the motion of the Planets to the current year which will appear in the sequel 2d. Substract the Age of the Person from the Aera you will have the Age of the Birth Explication 2d. The Age of the Person is the number of the Years from his Birth to the Year current which being deducted from the Aera there remains the Age or Time of the Birth that is to say the Year from the Astronomical Epocha in which the Nativity happened 3d. Multiply it by 12. Explication 3d. By multiplying the years by 12 they are reduced into Months These Months will be solar each consisting of 30 days 10 hours and a half a little more or less according to the several Hypotheses if the years are solar or near upon if they are lunisolar and in so great number that the excess of the one recompences the defect of the others 4th Add hereunto the number of the Months of the year current and for this purpose if the year current is Attikamaat that is to say if it has 13 Lunar months you shall begin to compute with the 5th month but if it is not Attikamaat you shall begin to compute with the 6th month Explication 4th The form of the Year here mentioned is lunisolar seeing there are some common of 12 lunar months and abundant or Embolismal called Attikamaat of 13 lunar months For that they begin to compute the months not with the first month of the year but with the fifth if it is Leap-year and with the sixth if it is not I have inferred that there are two Epocha's and two forms of different Years the one Astronomical and the other Civil that the first Month of the Astronomical Year begins in the fifth Month of the Civil Leap-year which would be the sixth Month without the intercalation of the Leap-month which is not reckoned amongst the 12 Months and which is supposed to be inserted before and that in the other Years all the Months of which are successively computed without Intercalation the first Month of the Astronomical Year is computed only from the sixth Month of the Civil Year But as it is not expresly determined here whether one ought to begin to compute an entire month at the beginning or end of the 5th or 6th month it may be that for the first month of the Astronomical Year they take that which ends at the beginning of the months whereof it is discoursed in this Article In this case the Interval between the beginning of the Civil Year and the beginning of the Astronomical Year would be only of 3 or 4 entire months whereas if an entire month is reckoned only at the end of the 5th or of the 6th month and that the first month which is reckoned according to this Rule be the first of the Astronomical Year the interval between the beginnings of these two sorts of years will be 4 or 5 whole months We shall see in sequel that the Indians have diverse sorts of Astronomical Years the beginnings of which are different and are not much distant from the Vernal Aequinox whereas the Civil Year must begin before the Winter Solstice sometimes in the month of November sometimes in the month of December of the Gregorian Year They add the number of the months of the current year which are lunar months to those that they have found by the third Article which are solar months and they suppose that the sum as heterogeneous as it is should be equal to the number of the solar months elapsed from the Astronomical Epocha They neglect the difference that there may be which in a year cannot amount to an entire month but they might be deceived a month in the succession of the years if they took not good heed to the Intercalations of the months after which the number of the months which are computed in the Civil Year is lesser than that which they would reckon without the precedent Intercalations 5th Multiply by 7 the number found Art 4. 6th Divide the sum by 228. 7th Joyn the quotient of the division to the number found Art 4. This will give you the Maasaken that is to say the number of the months which you shall keep Explication 5th 6th 7th They here seek the number of the lunar months from the Astronomical Epocha discoursed of in the 1st Article to the beginning of the current month which is performed by reducing the solar months which are supposed to have been found above into lunar months by the means of the difference which is between the one and the other In the operations which are made is is supposed that as 228 is to 7 so the number of the solar months given is to the difference which the number of the lunary months surpasses the number given of the solar months elapsed during the same space of time that thus in 228 solar months which do make 19 years there are 228 lunary months and 7 months more that is to say 235 lunary months This therefore is a Period like to that of Numa and Meto and to our Cycle of the golden number of 19 years during which the Moon rejoyn'd it self 235 times to the Sun Yet in the sequel we shall see that these Periods which accord together in the number of the lunar months and solar years agree not in the number of the hours by reason of the greatness of the solar year and of the lunar month which is supposed various in these several Periods and that the Indian is not subject to a fault so great as the ancient Cycle of the Golden Number which they have been obliged to expunge out of the Roman Kalender in the Gregorian correction because it gave the new Moons later than they are almost a day in 312 years whereas the New Moons determined by this Indian Period agree with the true in this interval of time to near an hour as will be found by comparing these Rules with the following II. 1. Set down the Maasaken 2. Multiply it by 30. 3. Joyn thereunto the days of the current Month. Explication The months of the Moon are here reduced into days but because they make all the months to consist of 30 days there only will be some artificial months about 11 hours 16 minutes longer than the Astronomical or some artificial days which begin at the New Moons and are 22 minutes 32 seconds shorter than the natural days of 24 hours which begin always at the return of the Sun to the same Meridian 4. Multiply the whole by 11. 5. Add thereunto also the number of 650. Explication They
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
reduce the days into 11 parts by multiplying them by 11 and they add thereto 650 elevenths which do make 59 days and 1 11. I find that these 59 days and 1 33 are the artificial days which were elapsed to the day of the Epocha since that an eleventh part of the natural day and an eleventh of the artificial had began together under the meridian of the Indies to which these Rules are accommodated 6. Divide the whole by 703. 7. Keep the Numerator which you shall call Anamaan 8. Take the quotient of the Fraction found Art 6. and substract it from the number found Art 3. The remainder will be the Horoconne that is to say the number of the days of the Aera which you shall keep Explication Having laid apart what is always added by the 5th Article it appears by the 2d. 3d. 4th 6th and 8th operation that as 703 is to 11 so the number of the artificial days which results from the Operations of the 2d. and 3d. Art is to the number of the days deducted to have the number of the natural days which answers to this number of the artificial days whence it appears that by making the lunar month to consist of 30 artificial days 703 of these days do surpass the number of the natural days which equal them above eleven days One may find the greatness of the Lunar Month which results from this Hyphothesis for if 703 Artificial Days do give an excess of 11 Days 30 of these Days which do make a Lunar Month do give an excess of 330 703 in the Day and as 703 is to 330 so 24 Hours are to 11 Hours 15 Minutes 57 Seconds and deducting this Overplus from 30 Days there remains 29 Days 12 Hours 44 Minutes 3 Seconds for the Lunar Month which agrees within a Second to the Lunar Month determined by our Astronomers As to the value of 59 Days and 1 11 which is added before the Division it appears that if 703 Days do give 11 to substract 59 Days and 1 11 do give 650 703 in the Day which do make 22 Hours 11 Minutes and a half by which the end of the Artificial Day must arrive before the end of the Natural Day which is taken for the Epocha The Anamaan is the number of the 703 parts of the Day which remain from the end of the Artificial Day to the end of the current Natural Day Use is made hereof in the sequel to calculate the motion of the Moon as shall be afterwards explained The Quotient which is taken from the number of the Days found by the third Art is the difference of the entire Days which is found between the number of the Artificial Days and the number of the Natural Days from the Epocha The Horoconne is the number of the Natural Days elapsed from the Astronomical Epocha to the current Day It should seem that in rigour the Addition of the Days of the current Month prescribed by the third Article should not be made till after the Multiplication and Division which serves to find the difference of the Artificial Days from the Natural because that the Days of the Current Month are Natural and not Artificial of 30 per mensem but by the sequel it appears that this is done more exactly to have the Anamaam which serves for the calculation of the motion of the Moon III. 1. Set down the Horoconne 2. Divide it by 7. 3. The Numerator of the Fraction is the day of the Week Note That the first day of the Week is Sunday Explication It follows from this Operation and Advertisement that if after the Division there remains 1 the current day will be a Sunday and if nothing remains it will be a Saturday the Astronomical Epocha of the Horoconne is therefore a Saturday If it be known likewise what day of the Week is the day current it will be seen whether the Precedent Operations have been well made IV. 1 Set down the Horoconne 2. Multiply it by 800. 3. Substract it by 373. 4. Divide it by 292207. 5. The Quotient will be the Aera and the Numerator of the Fraction will be the Krommethiapponne which you shall keep Explication The days are here reduced into 800 parts The number 373 of the third Article makes 373 800 of the day which do make 11 hours and 11 minutes They can proceed only from the difference of the Epocha's or from some correction seeing that it is always the same number that is substracted The Epocha of this fourth Section may therefore be 11 hours and 11 minutes after the former The Aera will be a number of Periods of Days from this new Epocha 800 of which will make 292207. The Question is to know what these Periods will be 800 Gregorian Years which very nearly approach as many Tropical Solar Years do make 292194 Days If then we suppose that the Aera be the number of the Tropical Solar Years from the Epocha 800 of these Years will be 13 Days too long according to the Gregorian correction But if we suppose that they are Anomalous Years during which the Sun returns to his Apogaeum or Astral Years during which the Sun returns to the same fixt Star there will be almost no error for in 13 Days which is the overplus of 800 of these Periods above 800 Gregorian Years the Sun by its middle motion makes 12d. 48′ 48″ which the Apogaeum of the Sun does in 800 Years by reason of 57″ 39′″ per annum Albategnius makes the Annual motion of the Sun's Apogeum 59″ 4′″ and that of the fix'd Stars 54″ 34′″ and there are some modern Astronomers which do make this annual motion of the Sun 's Apogaeum 57″ and that of the fix'd Stars 51″ Therefore if what is here called Aera is the number of the Anomalous or Astral Years these Years will be almost conformable to those which are established by the antient and modern Astronomers Nevertheless it appears by the following Rules that they use this form of Year as if it were Tropical during which the Sun returns to the same place of the Zodiack and that it is not distinguished from the other two sorts of Years The Krommethiapponne which remains after the preceeding Division that is to say after having taken all the entire Years from the Epocha will therefore be the 800 parts of the Day which remain after the Sun's return to the same place of the Zodiack and it appears by the following Operations that this place was the beginning of Aries Thus according to this Hypothesis the Vernal middle Aequinox will happen 11 Hours 11′ after the Epocha of the preceeding Section V. 1. Set down the Krommethiapponne 2. Substract from it the Aera 3. Divide the ramainder by 2. 4. Neglecting the Fraction substract 2 from the Quotient 5. Divide the remainder by 7. the Fraction will give you the day of the Week Note That when I shall say the Fraction I mean only of the Numerator Explication Seeing
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
according to this method it would be impossible to make use of these Indian Rules in the Calculation of the Planets without committing the same Error which would be slipp'd into the Calendar unless that this Error was known by the exact History of the Intercalations and that regard was thereunto had in the Calculation Though by the Indian Rules is sought the number of the months elapsed from one Epocha by the means of a Cycle of 228 solar months supposed equal to 325 lunar months which is equivalent to the Cycle of our golden number of nineteen years in the number of our solar and lunar months which it comprehends yet it is seen by most of the Siamese dates which we have been able to observe that the first day of their month even in this age is hardly distant from the day of the Moons conjunction with the Sun and that the Calendar of the Indians is not run into the Error into which our old Calendar was fallen where the new Moons were regulated by the Cycle of the golden number which gives them more slow than they are so that since they have introduced this Cycle into the Calendar which was about the fourth Age to the Age past the error was amounted to above four days But the Indians have avoided this fault by making use of the Rules of the I. Section to find the number of the lunar months and of the Rules of the II. Section to find the number of the days and hours which are in this number of months which being founded on the Hypothesis of the greatness of the lunar months which differs not from the real one a second cannot want above a day in 8000 years whereas the Ancient Cycle of our golden number supposes that in 235 lunar months there are the number of days and hours which are in 19 Julian years which do exceed 235 lunar months one hour 27′ 33″ which do make 5 days in 1563 years It appears also that the Calendar of the Indians is very different from that of the Chineses who begin their year with the new Moon nearest the fifteenth of Aquarius according to Father Martinius or the fifth of the same Sign according to Father Couplet which happen'd but a month and half before the Vernal Equinox and who regulate their Intercalations by a Cycle of sixty years which the Tunquineses do likewise according to the report of Father Martinius in his Relations IV. The Method of comparing the Siamese dates to the Indian Rules TO examine whether the Siamese dates agree with the Indian Rules we have found by these Rules the number of the months comprized in the years elapsed from the Astronomical Epocha and the year current and we have thereunto added the month of the year current which we have begun to compute by the sixth month of the Civil year for the first date which was of the eighth month before the Intercalation of a month and for the second date which was of the eleventh month and after the Intercalation of a month we have begun to compute the months of the current year with the fifth of the eleven months which were then computed which is the same month that they have reckon'd for the sixth before the Intercalation of a month according to the Explication which we have given to the fourth Article of the I. Section We have done the same thing for the following dates having verified that it is necessary to begin to compute from the fifth month during the residue of the Astronomical year and during that which immediately follows the Intercalacation And having afterwards calculated the number of the days comprized in these sums of months according to the Rules of the II. Section we have found that the number of the days found by these Rules agrees with the number of the days comprehended between the Astronomical Epocha of the year 638 and the days of the Conjunctions from whence they have taken the beginning of the months in several of these dates and particularly in those of October 20 and of December 8 which to us have appeared the most regular This method which we have used to compare the Siamese dates to the Indian Rules has made known to us the terms in our Calendar between which must happen the new Moon of the fifth month of the Civil year after the Leap-year or of the sixth month of the year after a common whereby they must begin to compute the months according to the 4th Article of the I. Section and which may be considered as the first new Moon of a kind of lunisolar Astronomical year which we have judged ought to begin after the Vernal Equinox wherefore it is necessary largely to give an example of this Comparison which will demonstrate the use of these Rules and will serve as a demonstration of the Explication that we have made thereof EXAMPLE for the I. DATE WE have sought what according to the Indian Rules ought to be the number of the days comprized between the Astronomical Epocha and the middle conjunction of the eighth month of the Indian year 2231 in this form By the Rules of the I. Section FRom the Astronomical Epocha of the Julian year of Jesus Christ 638 to the year 1687 there are 1049 years which is the Aera according to the 1st Article having multiply'd it by 12 according to the 3d Article there are 12588 solar months It is necessary to add the months of the current year Article 4 and because the Ambassadors computed the eighth month of the year 2231 before the Intercalation of a month we have begun to compute from the sixth of these months according to our Explication thus to the eighth month we shall have three months to add to 12588 which will make the sum of 12591. Multiplying them by 7 Article 5thly the Product will be 88137. Dividing it by 228 Article 6thly the Quotient will be 386 to add to 12591 Article 7thly and the sum will make 12977 lunar months By the Rules of the II. Section MUltiplying this number of months by 30 Article 2d the Product will give 389310 artificial days Multiplying them by 11 Article 4th the Product will be 4282410. Dividing this Product by 703 Article 6th the Quotient will be 6091 437 705. Having substracted it from 383310 artificial days Article 8 there remains 383218 266 703. which is the number of the natural days elapsed from the Astronomical Epocha to the new Moon of the eighth month of the Indian year 2231. The Fraction 266 703 being reduced gives 9 hours 4′ 34″ which this Conjunction happen'd later at Siam according to these Rules than that of the Astronomical Epocha of the year 638. By the means of our Calendar is found the number of the days elapsed between the twenty first month of the Julian year 1638 and June 10th of the Gregorian year 1687 by this Calculation From the year 638 which was the second after the Bissextile 636 to the year 1687 which was the
the 28th of March is so near the Vernal Aequinox that it might be stiled the Aequinoxial Term and might be thought the beginning of a Solar Astronomical Year 'T is not possible to reconcile together the Rules of divers Sections which speak of the number of the years elapsed from the Epocha under the name of Aera without supposing divers sorts of Indian years The Aera is spoken of in the I. Section where we have said that the Aera is the number of the years elapsed from the Astronomical Epocha In the same Section it is resolved into solar and lunar months and in the 2d Section the lunar months are resolved into artificial days of 30 for every lunar month and into natural days such as are of common use The Aera is likewise spoken of in the IV. Section wherein it appears that it is composed of a number of those very days which are found in the II. Section so that it would seem at first that this was the Synthesis of the same Aera the Analysis of which is made in the I. and II. Section But having calculated by the Rules of the I. and II. Section and by the Supplement of which we shall speak the number of the days that ought to be in 800 years which number in the IV. Section is supposed to be 292207 we have there found only the number of 292197 days 8 hours and 27 minutes which is less by 9 days 15 hours 33 minutes than that of 292207 days which are supposed in the IV. Section ought to be found in that very number of years This difference is greater than that which is found between 800 Julian years which consist of 292200 days and 800 Gregorian years which consist only of 292194 days the difference of which is 6 days and in 800 of these years which result from the Rules of the two first Sections there is a surplusage above the Gregorian years of 13 days 8 hours 24 minutes whereas 800 years of the IV. Section do 7 days exceed 800 Julian years and 13 days the like number of Gregorian As the Gregorian is a Tropical year which consists in the time that the Sun employs in returning to the same degree of the Zodiack which degree is always equally distant from the points of the Aequinoxes and Solstices there is no doubt that the year drawn from the Rules of the I. and II. Section does nearer approach the Tropick than the year drawn from the Rules of the IV. Section which as we have remarked approaches the Astral year determined by the return of the Sun to a fixed Star and the Anomalistick determined by the Sun's return to its Apogaeum which several ancient and modern Astronomers distinguish not from the Astral no more than the Indians supposing that the Sun 's Apogaeum is fixed amongst the fixed Stars tho' most of the moderns do attribute a little motion to it Nevertheless it appears that the Indians make use of the Solar year of the IV. Section as we make use of the Tropick when according to the Rules of the VII VIII X and XI Sections they calculated the place of the Sun and his Apogaeum and of the Moon and her Apogaeum For the time elapsed from the end of this year called Krommethiapponne serves them to find the Signs Degrees and Minutes of the middle motion of the Sun They suppose then that this year consists in the Sun's return to the beginning of the Signs of the Zodiack like our Tropical year 'T is true that at present the Signs of the Zodiack are taken amongst us in two ways which were not formerly distinguished When the Ancients had observed the tract of the Sun's motion thro' the Zodiack which they had divided into four equal parts by the points of the Aequinoxes and Solstices and that they had subdivided every fourth part into three equal parts which in all do make the 12 Signs they observed the Constellations formed of a great number of fixed Stars which fell in every one of these Signs and they gave to the Signs the name of the Constellations which are there found not supposing then that the same fixed Stars would ever quit their Signs But in the succession of Ages it is found that the same fixed Stars were no more in the same degrees of the Signs whether that the Stars were advanced towards the East in regard of the points of the Aequinoxes and Solstices or that these very points were removed from the same fixed Stars towards the West and it is now found that a fixed Star passes from the beginning of one Sign to the beginning of another in about 2200 years Therefore seeing that Ptolomy in the second Age of Jesus Christ confirmed this as yet doubtful discovery which had been made three Ages before by Hipparchus there is a distinction made between the Zodiack which may be called local which begins from the Aequinoxial point of the Spring and is divided into 12 Signs and the Astral Zodiack composed of 12 Constellations which do still retain the same name tho' at present the Constellation of Aries has passed into the Sign of Taurus and that the same thing has happen'd to the other Constellations which have passed into the following Signs Yet the Astronomers do ordinarily refer the places and motions of the Planets to the local Zodiack because it is important to know how they refer to the Aequinoxes and Solstices on which depends their distance from the Aequinoxial and Poles the various magnitude of the Days and Nights the diversity of the Seasons and some other Circumstances the knowledg of which is of great use Copernicus is almost the sole person amongst our Astronomers who refers the places and motions of the Planets to the Astral Zodiack by reason that he supposes that the fixed Stars are immoveable and that the Anticipation of the Aequinoxes and Solstices is only an appearance caused by a certain motion of the Axis of the Earth But they who follow his Hypothesis cease not to denote the places of the Planets in regard of the points of the Aequinoxes in the local Zodiack by reason of the Consequences of this Situation which we have remarked 'T would be an admirable thing that the Indians who follow the Dogmata of the Pythagoraeans should herein conform to the method of Copernicus who is the restorer of the Hypothesis of the Pythagoraeans Yet there is no appearance that they designed to refer the places of the Planets rather to any fixed Star than to the Aequinoxial point of the Spring For it seems that they would have chosen for this purpose some principal fixed Star as Copernicus has done who for the Principle of his Zodiack has chosen the Point to which refers the Longitude of the first Star of Aries which was found in the first degree of Aries where was the Aequinoxial Point of the Spring when the Astronomers began to place the fix'd Stars in regard of the Points of the Aequinoxes and Solstices But at
the place of the Heavens where the Indians place the beginning of the Signs of the Zodiack according to the IV. Section and the following Sections there is not any considerable Star there are only thereabouts some of the smallest and most obscure Stars of the Constellation of Pisces but it is the place where was the Aequinoxial Point at the time of their Astronomical Epocha from whence the fixed Stars advanced afterwards towards the East so that the Sun by its annual motion returns not to the same fixed Star till about 20 minutes after its return to the same Point of the local Zodiack It was difficult to perceive this little difference in few years to the Ancients who did not immediately compare the Sun to the fixed Stars as it is at present compared and who compared only the Sun to the Moon during the day and the Moon to the fixed Stars during the night tho' from the day to the night the Moon changes place amongst the fixt Stars as well by its own motion which is quick and irregular as by its Parallax which was not well known to the Ancients Wherefore they very lately only perceived the difference that there is between the Tropical year during which the Sun returns to the Points of the Aequinoxes and the Solstices and the Astral year during which it returns to the same fixed Stars and then they had a Solar year of 365 days and a quarter which is found at present to be the mean between the Tropical and the Astral and that it surpasses the Tropical by 11 minutes and is shorter than the Astral by 9 minutes VII The Determination of the Magnitude of the two sorts of Indian Years IT is easie to find the greatness of the year which is supposed in the IV. Section by dividing 292207 days by 800 years each of which is found to consist of 365 days 6 hours 12′ 36″ It is a little more difficult to find that which results from the I. and II. Sections in which it is necessary to supply some Rules which are there wanting to be able to make this use thereof For in the I. Section it is supposed that the years are composed of entire lunar months and that the number of the months which remain is known besides And in the II. Section it is supposed that the entire months have been found by the I. Section and that the number of the days which remain is known besides yet a number of solar years which is not but very rarely composed of entire lunar months must have not only the number of the months but also the number of the days determin'd Indeed we find that these Rules do tacitly suppose a solar year composed of months days hours and minutes which regulate the lunisolar years The way of finding it by these Rules is to resolve a year into solar and lunar months by the 3d 5th 6th and 7th Rules of the I. Section and not to neglect the fraction which remains after the division made by the 6th Article of the same Section but to reduce it into days hours minutes and seconds or into the decimal parts of a month going to a thousand millions to prepare it for the operations which must be performed according to the 1st 2d 3d 4th 6th and 8th rules of the II. Section as well for this fraction as for the whole months and in fine to reduce after the same manner the fraction called Anamaan in the II. Section After a plainer manner may likewise be found the greatness of this year by making use of the Hypotheses which we have infolded in these two Sections to find a period of years which should be composed of a number of intire lunar months and likewise of a number of intire days By supposing according to our explication of the Hypotheses of the II. Section that a lunar month is equal to 30 artificial days and that 703 artificial days are equal to 692 natural days it will be found that in 703 lunar months there are 20760◠natural days and adding thereunto the Hypothesis of the I. Section according to which the number of 228 solar months which do make 19 years are equal to 235 lunar months it will be found that in 13357 solar years there are 165205 entire lunar months which do make 4878600 natural days from whence it results that a lunar month according to these Hypotheses consists of 29 days 12 hours 44′ 2″ 23‴ 23″″ and the solar year of 365 days 5 hours 55′ 13″ 46‴ 5″″ This Indian year conceal'd in the tacit Hypotheses of these two Sections agrees within two seconds with the tropical year of Hipparchus and Ptolomy which consists of 365 days 5 hours 55′ 12″ and to near 13 seconds with that of Rabbi Adda an Author of the third Age which consists of 365 days 5 hours 55′ 26″ If it could be verified that these years and these months had been determined by the Indians on the Observations of the Sun independently from the Western Astronomy this agreemet of several Astronomers of different Nations so remote one from the other would serve to prove that the Tropical year has anciently been of this bigness though at present it is found lesser by 6 minutes which in 10 years do make an hour and in 240 years a whole day But it is probable that this greatness of the year has been determined only by the Observations of the Eclipses and other Moons and by the Hypothesis that Nineteen solar years are equal to Two hundred thirty five lunar months which Hypothesis so nearly approaches the truth that it was difficult to observe the difference thereof but in the succession of Ages which prevented Hipparacus and Ptolomy from departing therefrom in the determination of the greatness of the solar year VIII The Antiquity of these two sorts of Indian years WE have not a more precise knowledge of the Indian years than that which we have drawn from these Rules Scaliger who has carefully collected all the Memoirs that he could gather from the ancient Authors from the Patriarch of Antioch from the Missionaries and different Travellers and who has inserted them not only in his work de Emendatione temporum but also in his Commentaries upon Manilius and in his Isagoge Chronologica judging that these Memoirs might please all those that have any curiosity for Learning establishes nothing thereon which satisfies Patavius and it is certain that Scaliger's Indian year refers neither to the one nor the other of those which we have now found But in the Cardinal de Cusa's Treatise of the Calendar there are some vestigia of these two sorts of Indian years That which we have drawn from the IV. Section is there found almost in formal terms that which we have drawn from the Comparison of the I. and II. Section is found there also but after a manner so obscure that the Author himself who relates it has not comprehended it This Cardinal says that according to Abraham Aven Ezra
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
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
end that the term might be as a medium between the several beginnings of the years some of which commence sooner and others later as it is practised in our Ecclesiastical years which began before the Vernal Equinox when the Equinox arrives before the 15th of the Moon and which begin after the Equinox when the Equinox happens after the 14th of the Moon But it is more commodious for the Astronomical Calculations to begin the year always before or always after the Equinox as it is practised in the Astronomical Indian year according to our Explication Nevertheless it is necessary to remark that the point of the Zodiack which the Indians do take for the beginning of the signs according to the Rules of the IV. and following Sections and which they consider in some sort as the Aequinoxial point of the Spring is in this Age removed 13 degrees from the Astronomical Term of the years discoursed of in the I. Section so that the Sun arrives there the fourteenth day after the synodical Aequinox Wherefore a part of the Astronomical lunisolar years which begin after the Term established by the Rules of the I. Section will begin in this Age before this sort of Aequinox and the other part will begin after so that this sort of Aequinox is as it were in the middle of the several beginnings of the lunisolar years which begin in the fifth and sixth month of the Civil year XII A Correction of the lunar Months and of the solar Synodical years of the Indians IT is very easy to accommodate the lunar months of the Indians and their solar synodical years to the modern Hypotheses After having made the calculations according to the Indian Rules it is necessary to divide the number of the years elapsed since the Astronomical Epocha by 6 and by 4. The first Quotient will give a number of seconds to substract from the time of the new Moons calculated according to these Rules EXAMPLE In the year of Jesus Christ 1688 the number of the years elapsed from the Astronomical Epocha of the Indians is 1050. This number being divided by 6 the Quotient which is 175 gives 175 minutes that is to say 2 hours 55 minutes to add This same number being divided by 4 the quotient is 262 which gives 262 seconds that is to say 6 minutes 22 seconds to substract and the Equation will be 2 hours 48 minutes 38 seconds Having added this Equation to the first Conjunction of the solar Synodical year 1051 which according to these rules happen'd the 31st of March in the year 1688 at 19 hours 28 minutes 24 seconds after midnight the middle Conjunction will be the 31st of March at 22 hours 17 minutes 12 seconds at the Meridian of Siam The same Equation serves to the Synodical years which result from the time of 235 lunar months divided into 19 years The first division by 6 will suffice if they take once and a half as many seconds to substract as there are found minutes to add XIII The difference between the solar Synodical and the Tropical years of the Indians IF the Indians take for a Tropical year the time which the Sun employs in returning to the beginning of the Signs of the Zodiack according to the fourth and following Sections the difference between these years and the Synodical is considerable as we have already remark'd According to the Western Astronomy the beginning of the Signs is the point of the Vernal Equinox where the ascending demicircle of the Zodiack terminated by the Tropicks is intersected by the Equinoxial for they hold no more to the Hypothesis of the Ancients who plac'd the Equinoxes at the eighth parts of the Signs and the Tropical year is the time that the Sun employs in returning to the same point whether Equinoxial or Tropical The Conjunctions of the Moon with the Sun which happen in the points of the Equinoxes return not precisely at the end of the nineteenth Tropical year for this nineteenth year ends about two hours before the end of the 235th lunar month which terminates the nineteenth Synodical year I say about two hours for in this the modern Astronomers agree not among themselves to 9 or 10 minutes because that the time of the Equinoxes being very difficult to determine exactly they agree not in the exactness of the Tropical year but to near half a minute tho they be almost unanimously agreed even to the thirds in the greatness of the lunar month Those that do make the greatness of the Tropical year of 365 days 5 hours 49 minutes 4 seconds and 36 thirds will have the period of 19 solar Synodical years above two exact hours longer than the period of 19 Tropical years They that make the Tropical year longer will have a lesser difference and they that make the Tropical year shorter as most of the Astronomers do at present will have it greater It may here be supposed that this difference would be 2 hours wantting 3 minutes seeing that the defect of the lunar Indian months in 19 years is 3 minutes and that the Tropical year would consist of 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 55 seconds Thus if at every 19th year from the Astronomical Epocha of the Indians they deduct 2 hours from the Equinoxial Term calculated by the Indian rules without the correction and if they deduct also 14 hours 46 minutes for the time by which it may be supposed that the middle Equinox precedes the Epocha of the new Moons according to the modern Hypotheses they will have the middle Equinox of the Spring of the year proposed since the Epocha conformable to the modern Hypotheses EXAMPLE In the year 1686 the number of the years since the Astronomical Epocha of the Indians is 1048. This number being divided by 19 the Quotient is 55 3 19 which being doubled gives 110 hours 19 minutes that is to say 4 days 14 hours 19 minutes to which having added for the Epocha 14 hours 4 minutes the summ is 5 days 5 hours 5 minutes and this summ being deducted from the term of the same Synodical year 1048 which has before been found on the 27th of March 1686 at 15 hours 42 minutes of the evening there remains the 22d of March 10 hours 37 minutes of the Evening at the Meridian of Siam for the middle Equinox of the Spring of the year 1686. XIV An Examination of the great lunisolar period of the Indians IN the VII Chapter of these Reflexions we have found that the Period of 13357 years is composed of 165205 entire lunar months which do make 4878600 whole days according to the Rules of the II. Section This Period according to the Hypothesis of these Rules brings back the new Moons which terminate the Indian synodical years to the same hour and to the same minute under the same Meridian But having examined it by the method of the XII Chapter of these Reflexions it will be found that it is shorter than a period of a like
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
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
much spitting if they care not to swallow the Juice but it is good to spit out the two or three first Mouthfuls at least to avoid swallowing the Lime The other less sensible effects but which are not doubted in the Indies are to carry from the Gums perhaps by reason of the Lime whatever may prejudice them and to fortifie the Stomach either by reason of the Juice that is swallowed at pleasure and which may have this quality or by reason of the superfluous moistures which they discharge by spitting Thus have I never found any person at Siam with a stinking breath which may be an effect of their natural Sobriety Another effect of the Areca and Betel Now as the Areca and Betel do cause a red spittle independently on the red Lime which is mix'd therewith so they leave a Vermilion Tincture on the Lips and Teeth It passes over the Lips but by little and little it thickens on the Teeth till they become black So that persons that delight in neatness do blacken their Teeth by reason that otherwise the spittle of the Areca and Betel mix'd with the natural whiteness of the Teeth causes an unpleasant effect which is remarked in the common People I shall transiently declare that the Vermilion Lips which the Siameses saw in the Pictures of our Ladies which we had carried to this Country made them to say that we must needs have in France better Betel than theirs How they blacken their Teeth and how they redden the Nails of their little fingers To blacken their Teeth they do thereon put some pieces of very sowre Lemon which they hold on their Jaws or Lips for an hour or more They report that this softens the Teeth a little They afterwards rub them with a Juice which proceeds either from a certain Root or from the Coco when they are burnt and so the operation is perform'd Yet it pleases them sometimes to relate that it continues three days during which it is necessary they say to lye on their Belly and eat no solid Food But some have assur'd me that this is not true and that it is sufficient to eat nothing hot for two or three days I believe rather that their Teeth are too much set on edge to be able for some time to eat any thing solid It is necessary continually to renew this operation to make the effect thereof continue for this Blackness sticks not so strong to the Teeth but that it may be rub'd off with a burnt Crust of Bread reduc'd to Powder They love also to redden the Nails of their little Fingers and for this end they scrape them and then apply a certain Juice which they extract from a little Rice bruised in Citron Juice with some Leaves of a ree which in every thing resembles the Pomegranate Tree but bears no Fruit. Of the Palmites in general In brief the Arequier or Arectree and all the Trees which are called Palmites have no Branches but great long and broad Leaves like the Palm-tree and they have their Leaves only at the top of the stalk which is hollow These sorts of Trees do annually produce a new Shoot of Leaves which spring out of the middle of the Leaves of the preceeding year which then fall off and leave a mark round the Trunk so that by these marks which are so many knots and which are close together they can easily compute the Years or Age of the Tree This is what I had to say concerning the Extent and Fertility of the Kingdom of Siam I will now discourse of the Manners of the Siameses in general that is to say of their Habit Houses Furniture Table Equipage Diversions and Affairs A Siamese Mandarin A Siamese Mandarin A Siamise woman w th her Child The Kings Apartment I The Hall of Audience A House of a Siamese PART II. Of the Manners of the Siameses in general CHAP. I. Of the Habit and Meen of the Siameses THey hardly cloath themselves They wear few Cloaths not so much by reason of the heat as by the simplicity of their Manners Tacitus reports concerning the German Infantry in his time that it was either all naked or cover'd with light Coats and even at this present there are some Savages in the Northern America which go almost naked which proves in my opinion that the simplicity of Manners as well as the Heat is the cause of the Nakedness of the Siameses as it is of the Nudity of these Savages 'T is not but that Cloaths are almost insupportable to the French which arrive at Siam and who know not how to forbear acting and stirring but it is unhealthful for them to uncloath themselves by reason that the Injuries of the excessively hot Air are not less dreadful than those of the extreamly cold Air to which one is not accustom'd yet with this difference that in very hot Climats 't is sufficient for health to cover the Stomach The Spaniards do for this reason cover it with a Buffalo's Skin four double but the Siameses whose Manners are plain in every thing have chosen to habituate themselves from their Infancy to an almost entire Nudity They go with their Feet naked and their Head bare The Pagne the Habit of the Siameses and for Decency only they begirt their Reins and Thighs down to their Knees with a piece of painted Cloth about two Ells and an half long which the Portuguese do call Pagne from the Latin word Pannus sometimes instead of a painted Cloth the Pagne is a silken Stuff either plain or embroider'd with a border of Gold and Silver The Mandarins or Officers do wear besides the Pagne A Muslin Shirt serves them for a Vest a Muslin Shirt which is as their Vest They pluck it off and wrap it about their middle when they approach a Mandarin much higher than them in Dignity to express unto him their readiness to go where he shall please to send them And yet the Officers whom we saw at the Audiences of the King of Siam remain'd cloath'd therewith as with their Habit of Ceremony and by the same reason they always had their Bonnets high and pointed on the Head These Shirts have no Neck-band and are open before they taking no care to fasten them to cover their Stomach The Sleeves hang down almost to their Wrists being about two Foot wide but without being plaited above or below Moreover the Body thereof is so strait that not slipping nor falling down over the Pagne it sets in several wrinckles In Winter they do sometimes put over their shoulders a breadth of Stuff or painted Linnen either like a Mantle or a Scarf A Scarf against the Cold. the ends of which they wind very neatly about their Arms. But the King of Siam wears a Vest of some excellent Sattin brocaded How the King wears Vests of Silk the Sleeves of which are very strait and reach down to the Wrist and as we apparel
continue this sort of Bathing for an hour In a word they need not to warm the water for their Domestic Baths no notwithstanding it has been kept several days and in Winter it always continues naturally hot They take care of their Teeth altho' they black them The Neatness of their Teeth and Hair they wash their Hair with Water and sweet Oils as the Spaniards do and they use no more Powder than they but they comb themselves which most of the Spaniards do not They have Combs from China which instead of being all of a piece like ours are only a great many Points or Teeth tied close together with Wire They pluck their Beard and naturally have little but they cut not their Nails they are satisfy'd to keep them neat We saw some Dancers by Profession who for Beauty An Affectation for long Nails had put on very long Copper Nails which made them appear like Harpies At China at least before the Conquest of the Tartars the Custom was neither to cut the Nails nor the Hair nor the Beard The Men wore on their Heads a Net of Hair or Silk which they fasten'd behind and which not covering the top of the Head left a space through which they pull'd out their Hair and then wreath'd and fasten'd it with a Bodkin And it is said that this Dress on which they sometimes also wore Bonnets or a kind of Hats did cause Megrims and other very violent pains in their Head CHAP. II. Of the Houses of the Siameses and of their Architecture in Publick Buildings IF the Siameses are plain in their Habits they are not less in their Houses The Siameses keep the same Simplicity in every thing in their Furniture and in their Food Rich in a general Poverty because they know how to content themselves with a little Their Houses are small but surrounded with pretty large Grounds Hurdles of cleft Bambou oftentimes not close compacted do make the Floors Walls and Roofs thereof The Piles on which they are erected to avoid the Inundation are Bambou's as thick as one's Leg and about 13 Foot above the Ground by reason that the Waters do sometimes rise as much as that There never is more than four or six on which they do lay other Bambou's across instead of Beams The Stairs are a Ladder of Bambou which hangs on the outside like the Ladder of a Wind-mill And by reason that their Stables are also in the Air they have Climbers made of Hurdles by which the Cattle enter therein If every House stands single 't is rather for the privacy of the Family Houses soon built which would be discover'd through such thin Walls than for fear of Fire For besides that they make their little Fire in the Courts and not in the Houses it is impossible for them in any case to consume any great matter Three hundred Houses which were burnt at Siam in our time were rebuilt in two days On a time when a Boom was shot to please the King of Siam who beheld it at a distance and from one of the Windows of his Palace it was necessary for this purpose to remove three Houses and the Proprietors had taken and carry'd them away with their Furniture in less than an hour Their Hearth or Chimney is a Basket full of Earth and supported with three Sticks like a Tripode And thus they place the Fires wherewith they enclose great spaces in the Forests for the hunting of the Elephants There are no Inns at Siam 'T is in Houses of this Nature or rather in these sorts of Tents but bigger that they lodged us along the River They had built them purposely for us by reason there are not any wherein they could lodge us There are no Inns at Siam nor in any State of Asia But in Turkey Persia and Mogul there are Caravansera's for Travellers that is to say public Buildings without Furniture in which the Caravans may shelter themselves and here every one eats and lies according to the Provisions and Conveniences which he carries thither In the Road from Siam to Louvo I saw a Hall for this use 'T is a space about the bigness of an ordinary Hall enclosed with a Wall about as high as one may easily lean over and covered with a Roof which is laid upon wooden Pillars set at equal distances in the wall The King of Siam does sometimes dine there in his Travels but as for particular persons their Boats serve them for their Inn. Hospitality why unknown amongst the People of Asia Hospitality is a Vertue unknown in Asia which in my opinion proceeds from the care that every one takes to conceal his Wives The Siameses practise it only as to the Beasts which they freely succour in their Distresses But the Talapoins having no Wives they are more hospitable than the People At Siam was a French man who resolv'd to keep an Inn there and some Europeans only did sometimes go thither And although amongst the Siameses as well as amongst the Chineses it be an established practice to entertain one another yet it is rarely in this Country and with much Ceremony and especially no open Table is there kept so that it would be difficult to lay out much in keeping a Table if one would What Houses were purposely built for the King's Ambassadors There being no house proper for us on the banks of the River they built some after their Country fashion Hurdles laid on Piles and covered with Mats of Bulrush did not only make the Floors but the Area of the Courts The Hall and Chambers were hung with painted Cloaths with Cielings of white Muslin the extremities of which hung sloping The Floors were cover'd with Rushmats finer and more shining than those of the Courts and in the Chambers where the King's Ambassadors lay Tapestry-carpets were laid over the Mats Neatness appeared every where but no Magnificence At Bancok Siam and Louvo where the Europeans Chineses and Moors have built Houses of Brick they lodged us in Houses of this sort and not in Houses purposely built for us Brick-Houses for the Ambassadors of France and Portugal which were not Finished Yet we saw two Brick Houses which the King of Siam had built one for the Ambassadors of France and the other for those of Portugal but they are not finished by reason perhaps of the little probability there was that they would be frequently inhabited Moreover it is certain that this Prince begins several Brick buildings and finishes few The reason of which I know not The Houses of the great Officers of Siam The great Officers of this Court have Timber Houses which are said to be great Armories but therein do lodge only the Master of the House his Principal Wife and their Children Every one of the other Wives with her Children every Slave with his Family have all their little Apartments separate and alone but yet inclosed within the same Inclosure of
of the Trunks and the Foot of the Terrasses where the Elephant could not come at them enter'd every where between the Trunks into the space where the Elephant was to vex him and when the Elephant pursued one of them he fled very swiftly behind the Pallisado's between which the enraged Elephant vainly thrust his Proboscis and against which he broke the end of one of his Teeth Whilst he thus pursued after those which provoked him others laid long Nooses for him One of the ends of which they kept and they threw them at him with so much dexterity that the Elephant in running never fail'd to put one of his hind-feet therein so that by diligently putting the end of the Noose they clos'd and fasten'd it a little above the Elephant's foot These Nooses were of great Ropes one of the ends of which was put into the other like a Slip-knot and the Elephant dragged three or four of them at each hind-foot For as soon as the Noose is once knit he lets go the end thereof to avoid being drag'd himself by the Elephant The more he is exasperated the less he associates with the Females and yet to make them quit this space a Man mounted on another Female enter'd therein and went back again several times through the Cortine and this Female which he mounted called the others by a dry blow which she struck against the ground with her Proboscis She darted it perpendicularly downwards yet avoiding to strike altogether with the end which she kept bended upwards And when she had repeated this Call twice or thrice he that rid her made her to return back again through the Cortine In fine after he had perform'd this Trick five or six times with this Female the other Female follow'd her and soon after the Elephant return'd to himself because they forbore to vex him resolv'd to go after them He push'd open the first door of the Cortine with his Proboscis and so soon as he was enter'd they threw several Buckets of water on his Body to refresh him and with an incredible swiftness and dexterity they ty'd him to the Trunks of the Cortine with the Nooses which were already at his feet Then they made a tame Elephant to enter backwards into the Cortine to whose Neck they also ty'd the savage Elephant by the Neck and at the same time unloos'd him from the Trunks and two other tame Elephants being likewise led to the Succor all the three the one on one side the other on the other and the third behind do conduct the wild Elephant under a Pent-house near adjoining where they fasten and tie him close by the Neck to a Pivot planted upright which he made to turn as he turn'd round They said that he need remain at this Pivot but 24 hours and that in this space of time they would lead some tame Elephants to him to keep him company and comfort him that after 24 hours they would carry him into the Stable appointed for him and that in eight days he would bethink himself and submit to Slavery They speak of an Elephant as of a Man What the Siameses do think of the Elephants they believe him perfectly rational and they relate such rational things of him that he only wants Speech This is one for Example to which you may give what Credit you please Some have related to us for a known Truth that a Man having crack'd a Coco on the head of an Elephant which he rode and using for this purpose the back of that kind of Punch with which I have said that they guide the Elephants this Elephant took up a resolution of revenging himself as soon as he could He gather'd up with his Proboscis as they say one of the Shells of the Coco and kept it several days never letting it go but to eat during which he kept it carefully between his two fore-feet In fine he that had affronted him approaching him to give him food the Elephant seiz'd him trampled him under his feet and slew him and for his Justification laid the Coco-Shell on the dead Body 'T is in these terms that the Relation was made to us for the Siameses do think that Elephants are capable of Justice and of profiting by the punishments one of another and they alledge that in War for Instance when these Animals mutiny it is needful only to kill one on the spot to render all the others wise But these Relations and several others which I have forgot do seem very fabulous and not to digress from the Example which I have mentioned it is in my opinion very evident that if the offended Elephant had consulted reason he would not have waited another opportunity of revenge but would have wreak'd his vengeance on the spot seeing that every Elephant can with his Proboscis throw off the Rider and having thrown him on the ground trample him under foot and kill him How the Siameses took leave of the three Elephants which the King of Siam sent into France As for my self during the time I was at Siam I saw no marvellous Act perform'd by any of these Animals tho' I am persuaded that they are more docible than others They embarked three young ones which the King of Siam sent to the three Princes the Grandsons of France The Siameses which brought them on Board our Ships to embark them took leave of them as they would have done of three of their Companions and whisper'd them in their Ears saying Go depart chearfully you will be Slaves indeed but you will be so to three the greatest Princes of the World whose Service is as moderate at it is glorious They afterwards hoisted them into the Ships and because they bow'd down themselves to go under the Decks they cry'd out with admiration as if all Animals did not as much to pass under low places The Elephant is very dangerous when he is enraged One day at Louvo an Elephant tore in pieces in the Street the Brother of a young Mandarin who was with the King's Ambassadors as Mr. Torph had been with the Ambassadors of Siam They said indeed that the Elephant was enraged but this Rage was not of a Beast more reasonable but only more cruel than the rest Thus to render the Elephants of War more tame they are accompany'd with Females when they are led out to water and wash themselves and I know not whether without this Train it could ever be accomplish'd The Siameses report that the Elephants are sensible of Grandeur that they love to have a great House that is to say several Grooms for their service and some Females for their Mistresses with whom nevertheless it is said that the Elephants desire familiarity only in the Woods so long as they are savage and at full liberty that without this state they afflict themselves at the little regard had for them and that when they commit any great Fault the severest punishment that can be inflicted on
their new Stile tho' the first Month of the Year according to this new Style be the fifth or sixth of the old Style This in few words is the whole Skill of the Siameses in Astronomy What the Siameses do think of the System of the World Moreover they understand nothing of the true System of the World because they know nothing by Reason They believe therefore like all the East that the Eclipses are caused by some Dragon which devours the Sun and Moon perhaps by reason of the Astronomer's metaphorical way of speaking that the Eclipses are made in the Head and Tail of the Dragon And they make a great noise with Fire-shovels and Kettles to scare and drive away this pernicious Animal and to deliver those beauteous Planets They believe the Earth Four-square and of vast Extent on which the Arch of Heaven rests at its extremities as if it was one of our Glass-Bells with which we cover some of our Plants in our Gardens They assert that the Earth is divided into four habitable parts of the World so separated one from the other by Seas that they are as it were four different Worlds In the middle of these four Worlds they suppose an exceeding high Pyramidal Mountain with four equal sides called Caou pra Soumene Caou signifies a Mountain and to Mount and from the Surface of the Earth or the Sea to the top of this Mountain which as they say touches the Stars they compute 84000 Iods and every Iod contains about 8000 Fathoms They reckon as many Iods from the Surface of the Sea to the Foundations of the Mountain and they likewise reckon 84000 Iods extent of Sea from each of the four sides of this Mountain to every of the four Worlds which I have mentioned Now our World which they call Tchiampion lies as they report to the South of this Mountain and the Sun Moon and Stars do incessantly turn round it and it is that which according to them makes the Day and Night At the top of this Mountain is a Heaven which they call Intratiracha which is surmounted by the Heaven of Angels This Sample which is all I know thereof will suffice to demonstrate their Grossness and if it does not exactly accord to what others have writ before me concerning this matter we must not more admire the variety of the Siamese Opinions in a thing they understand not than the contrariety of our Systems in Astronomy which we pretend to understand The extream Superstition of the Indians is therefore a very natural Consequence of their profound Ignorance but for their Excuse some People The Indians are Superstitious proportionably to their extream Ignorance more illuminated than them have not been less Superstitious Have not the Greeks and after them the Romans believed in Judiciary Astrology Augurs Presages and all sorts of Arts invented under pretence of Divining and Predicting They thought that it was the goodness of the Gods to bestow on Men some Succors to penetrate Futurities and the words Divination and Divine are the same word in their Origine because that according to the ancient Pagans the Art of Divining was only an Art to consult the Deities The Siameses are also of opinion that there is an Art of Prophecying as there is one of restoring Health to the Sick And when the King of Siam's Soothsayers are mistaken he causes them to be bastinado'd not as Impostors but as negligent persons as he commands his Physicians to be cudgell'd when the Remedies they give him perform not the Effect which is thereby promised The Authority of Soothsayers over the Siameses This Prince no more than his Subjects undertakes no Affair nor Expedition till his Diviners which are all Brames or Peguins have fix'd him an hour prosperously to set upon it He stirs not out of his House or if he be gone he enters not again so long as his Diviners prohibit him Sunday seems to him more lucky than the other days because that in his Tongue he has preserv'd the name of the Sun's-day He believes the Increase of the Moon more lucky than the Decrease and besides this the Almanac which he causes Annually to be made by a Brame Astrologer denotes to him and his Subjects the lucky or unlucky days for most of the things they used to do A Folly which is perhaps too much tolerated amongst the Christians witness the Almanac of Milan to which so many persons do now give such a blind Belief And Presages The Siameses do take the Howlings of wild Beasts and the Cryes of Stags and Apes for an ill Omen as several persons amongst us are frightned with the Barking of the Dogs in the Night A Serpent which crosses the way the Thunderbolt which falls on a House any thing that falls as it were of itself and without any apparent Cause are Subjects of dread to the Siameses and the reasons of laying aside or setting upon an Affair how important and pressing soever it be One of the ways they make use of to foretel things to come and which is common to all the Orientals is to perform some superstitious Ceremonies then to go into the City and to take for an Oracle about what they desire to know the first words which they hear accidentally spoken in the Streets or in the Houses I could learn no more thereof by reason that the Christian Interpreters which I made use of look'd upon these things with Horror as Witchcraft and Compacts with the Daemon altho' it be very possible that they are only Fooleries full of Credulity and Ignorance The ancient Francs by a like Superstition consulted in their Wars the first words which they heard sung in the Church at their entring thereinto At this very day several persons have a Superstitious Belief in certain Herbs which they gather the Evening of St. John from whence is risen this Proverb To use or employ all the Herbs of St. John that is the utmost skill in an Affair And amongst the Italians there are some who after having wash'd their Feet in Wine on St. John's Eve do throw the Wine out at Window and so stand afterwards to hear those that pass along the Street taking for a certain Augury on what they desire to know the first word they hear spoken The Indians accused of Sorcery and why But that which has rais'd the Reputation of great Sorcerers amongst the Indians is principally the continual Conjurations which they use to drive away the evil Spirits with and attract the good They pretend to have some Talismans or Characters which they call Cata to accomplish whatever they please as to kill or to render invulnerable and to impose Silence on Persons and Dogs when they would commit a wicked Action and not be discovered If they prepare a Medicine they will fasten to the brim of the Vessel several Papers wherein they will write some mysterious words to hinder the Petpayatons from carrying away the vertue of the
the King of his Wives and of his Eunuchs and of all those whom this Prince maintains in the Vang 'T was the Oc-ya Vang who after the Example of all the other Governours which had received the King's Ambassadors at the entrance of their Government came to receive them at the Gate of the Vang and who introduced them to the Audience of the King his Master The Gates of the Palace and of the precautions with which persons are admitted The Gates of the Palace are always shut and behind each stands a Porter who has some Arms but who instead of bearing them keeps them in his Lodge near the Gate If any one knocks the Porter advertises the Officer who commands in the first Inclosure and without whose permission no person enters in nor goes out but no person enters armed nor after having drunk Arak to assure himself that no drunken man enters therein Wherefore the Officer views and smells the breath of all those that must enter therein The Meuing Tchion This Office is double and those that are in it do serve alternately and by day The days of Service they continue twenty four whole hours in the Palace and the other days they may be at home Their Title is Oc-Meuing Tchion of rather Pra Meuing Tchion for at the Palace before the word Meuing there are some who put the word Pra instead of Oc though some have told me that it is Oc-Meuing and not Pra-Meuing that he must be always called 'T was one of these Meuing Tchions who brought the first Compliment from the King of Siam to the Ambassadors when they were in the Road and who stayed constantly with them after they were landed as Mr. Torpff continued always with the Ambassador of Siam Painted Arms. Between the two first Inclosures and under a Pent-house is a small number of Soldiers unarmed and stooping They are those Kenhai or Painted Arms of whom I have spoken The Officer who commands them immediately and who is a Painted-Arm himself is called Oncarac and he and they are the Prince his Executioners as the Officers and Soldiers of the Pretorian Cohorts were the Executioners of the Roman Emperors But at the same time they omit not to watch the Prince's person for in the Palace there is wherewith to arm them in case of need They row the Balon of State and the King of Siam has no other Foot-guard Their Employment is hereditary like all the rest of the Kingdom and the ancient Law imports that they ought not to exceed six hundred But this must doubtless be understood that there ought to be no more than six hundred for the Palace for there must needs be many more in the whole extent of the State because that the King as I have said elsewhere gives thereof to a very great number of Officers A Guard of Slaves for a Show But this Prince is not contented with this Guard on days of Ceremony as was that of the first Audience of the King's Ambassadors On such occasions he causes his Slaves to be armed and if their number is not sufficient the Slaves of the principal Officers are armed He gives to them all some Muslin Shirts dyed red Muskets or Bows or Lances and Pots of gilded wood on their Heads which for this purpose are taken out of the Magazine and the quantity of which in my opinion determines the number of these Soldiers of show They formed a double Rank at the reception of Mr. de Chaumont and so soon as he was past those which he had left behind made haste to get before by the by-ways to go to fill up the vacant places which were left for them In our time they marched by the sides of the Ambassadors till they stopt up the space through which they were to pass We also found part of these Slaves prostrate before the little Stairs which goes up to the Hall of Audience Some held those little useless Trumpets which I have spoken of and others had before them those little Drums which they never beat The Meuing Tchion are the Nai of all these Slaves and these Slaves row the Balons of the King's retinue and are moreover employed on several works Anciently the Kings of Siam had a Japponese Guard The King of Siam has no standing Japponese Guard composed of six hundred men but because these six hundred men alone could make the whole Kingdom to tremble when they pleased the present King's Father after having made use of them to invade the Throne found out a way to rid himself of them more by policy than force The King of Siam's Horse-guard is composed of Men from Laos The Horse-Guard from Meen and Laos and another neighbouring Country the chief City whereof is called Meen and as the Meens and Laos do serve him by six Months he makes this Guard as numerous as he pleases and as many Horse as he would employ therein Oc-Coune Ran Patchi commands this Guard on the right hand His Son is in France and has for some years learnt the Trade of a Fountain-maker at Triannon Oc-Coune Pipitcharatcha or as the People say Oc-Coune Petratcha commands the half of this Guard which serves on the left hand but over these two Officers Oc-ya Lao commands the Guard of the Laos and Oc-ya Meen the Guard of the Meen and this Oc-ya Meen is a different person from him that prostitutes lewd Women Besides this the King of Siam has a foreign standing Horse-guard A Foreign Horse-Guard which consists in an Hundred and Thirty Gentlemen but neither they nor the Meen nor the Laos do ever keep Guard in the Palace Notice is given them to accompany the King when he goes out and thus all this is esteemed the exterior Service and not the interior Service of the Palace This foreign Guard consists first in two Companies of thirty Moors each Of what it is composed Natives or originally descended from the States of the Mogul of an excellent Meen but accounted Cowards Secondly in a Company of twenty Chinese Tartars armed with Bows and Arrows and formidable for their Courage and lastly in two Companies of Twenty five Men each Pagans of the true India habited like the Moors which are called Rasbouts or Raggibouts who boast themselves to be of the Royal blood and whose Courage is very famous though it be only the effect of Opium as I have before remarked The King of Siam supplies this whole Guard with Arms and with Horses What it costs and besides this every Moor costs him three Catis and twelve Teils a year that is to say 540 Livres or thereabouts and a red Stuff Vest and every of the two Moorish Captains five Catis and twelve Teils or 840 Livres and a Scarlet Vest The Raggibouts are maintained according to the same rate but every Chinese Tartar costs him only six Teils or 45 Livres a year and their Captain fifteen Teils or 112 Livres ten Sols
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
the sight of the Sun In the King's Palace they use a kind of Water-Clock 'T is a thin Copper Cup at the bottom of which they do make an almost imperceptible hole They put it quite empty upon the water which by little and little enters therein through the hole and when the Cup is full enough to sink down this is one of the hours or a twelfth part of the day They measure the Watches of the Night by such a like method and they make a Noise on Copper Basons when the Watch is ended I have related how Causes are determined in the King of Siam's Council How the King of Siam examines Affairs in his Council and how he terminates them Affairs of State are there examined and decided almost after the same manner That Councellor to whom this Prince has committed a business makes the report thereof which consists in reading it and then proceeds to the consultative Opinions and hitherto the King's Presence is not necessary When he is come he hears the report which is read to him concerning the former Consult he resumes all the advices confutes those which he approves not and then decides But if the Affair seems to him to merit a more mature deliberation he makes no decision but after having proposed his difficulties he commits the examination thereof to some of his Council whom he purposely appoints and principally to those who were of a different Opinion from his They after having again consulted together do cause the report of their new Consultation to be made by one of them in a full Council and before the King and hereupon this Prince consummates his Determination Yet sometimes but very rarely and in affairs of a cerrain Nature he will consult the principal Sancras which are the Superiors of the Talapoins whose credit in other matters he depresses as much as he can though in appearance he honors them exceedingly In a word there is such a sort of affairs wherein he will call the Officers of the Provinces but on all occasions and in all affairs he decides when he pleases and he is never constrained to either ask advice of any person or to follow any other advice than his own He oftentimes punishes ill Advice or recompences good He punishes bad Counsels and recompences good I say good or bad according to his sense for he alone is the Judge thereof Thus his Ministers do much more apply themselves to divine his sentiments than to declare him theirs and they misunderstand him by reason he also endeavours to conceal his Opinion from them In a word the affair on which he consults them Sometimes he consults about Affairs invented by way of Exercise He examines his Officers about their Obligations A Law against the Ambition of the Great Men. is not always a real concern 't is sometimes a question which he propounds to them by way of exercise He likewise has a custom of examining his Officers about the Pra-Tam-Ra which is that Book which I have said contains all their Duties and causes such to be chastized with the Bastinado who answer not very exactly even as a Father chastizes his Children in instructing them 'T is an ancient Law of the State established for the security of the King whose Authority is naturally almost unarmed that the Courtiers should not render him any visit without his express leave and only at Weddings and Funerals and that when they meet they should speak with a loud voice and in the presence of a third person but if the Kings of Siam be unactive or negligent not any Law secures them At present the Courtiers may appear again at the Academy of Sports where the great number seems to take away all opportunity of Caballings The Trade of an Informer so detested in all places where men are born free The Trade of an Informer commanded at Siam by the Law is commanded to every person at Siam under pain of death for the least things and so whatever is known by two Witnesses is almost infallibly related to the King because that every one hastens to give information thereof for fear of being herein prevented by his Companion and remain guilty of Silence The King of Siams Precautions to prevent being deceived The present King of Siam relies not in an important affair upon the single report of him to whom he has committed it but neither does he rely also on the report of a single Informer He has a number of secret Spies whom he separately interrogates and he sometimes sends more than one to interrogate those who have acted in the affair whereof he would be informed And yet it is easie for him to be deceived Why they are frequently ineffectual for throughout the Country every Informer is a dishonest man and every dishonest man is an Infidel Moreover Flattery is so great in India that it has persuaded the Indian Kings that if it is their interest to be informed it is their dignity to hear nothing that may displease them As for example they will not tell the King of Siam that he wants Slaves or Vassals for any enterprize he would go about They will not tell him that they cannot perform his Commands but they execute them ill and when the mischief appears they will excuse it by some defect They will tell him ill news quite otherwise than it is to the end that the truth reaching his Ears only by degrees may vex him less and that it might be easier to pacifie him at several times They will not counsel him a bad thing but will so insinuate it that he may think himself the Author and only take to himself the bad success And then they will not tell him that he must alter a thing that he has done amiss but they will persuade him to do it better some other way which will only be a pretence and in the new project they will suppress without acquainting him what they designed to reform and will put in the place what they designed to establish I my self have seen part of what I relate and and they have assured me the rest The King of Siams rigorous Justice Now such like Artifices are always very perilous they offend the present King in nothing without being punish'd Being severe to extream rigour he puts to death whom he pleases without any formality of Justice and by the hand of whom he pleases and in his own Presence And sometimes the Accuser with the Criminal the Innocent with the Calumniator for when the proofs remain doubtful he as I have said exposes both parties to the Tygers How he insults over the dead body After the Execution he insults over the dead body with some words which are a lesson to the living as for example after having made him who had robb'd his Magazine to swallow some melted Silver he says to the dead body Miserable wretch thou hast robb'd me of Ten Pieces of Silver and Three
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
they gild them but the Wood of their Coffins is not so precious as at China because they are not so rich as the Chineses Out of a respect they place the Coffin on some high thing and generally on a Bedsted which hath feet and so long as the body is kept at the house whether to expect the Head of the Family if he is absent or to prepare the Funeral Solemnities they burn Perfumes and Tapers by the Coffin and every night the Talapoins come to sing in the Balie Language in the Chamber where it is exposed they do range themselves along the Walls They entertain them and give them some Money and what they sing are some moral Subjects upon Death with the Road to Heaven which they pretend to show to the Soul of the deceased Mean while the Family chuses a place in the Field How they burn the bodies there to carry and burn the body This place is generally a Spot near the Temple which the Deceased or some of his Ancestors had built or near some other Temple if there is none peculiar to the Family of the deceased This space is inclosed with a square inclosure made of Bambou with some kind of Architecture almost of the same work as the Arbours and Bowers of our Gardens and adorned with those Papers Painted or Gilded which they cut to represent the Houses Moveables and Domestic and Savage Animals In the middle of this Inclosure the Pile composed entirely or partly of Odoriferous wood as are the white or yellow Saunders and Lignum Aloes and this according to the Wealth and Dignity of the deceased But the greatest honor of the Funeral consists in erecting the Pile not in eagerly heaping up Wood but in great Scaffolds on which they do put Earth and then Wood. At the Burial of the late Queen who died seven or eight years ago the Scaffold was higher than ever was yet seen in this Country and a Machine was desired of the Europeans to raise the Coffin decently to that heighth When it is resolved to carry the Corps to the Pile which is always done in the Morning the Parents and Friends do carry it with the sound of a great many Instruments The Body marches first then the Family of the deceased The Train Men and Women all cloathed in White their Head covered with a White Vail and lamenting exceedingly and in fine the rest of the Friends and Relations If the Train can go all the way by water it is so done In very magnificent Funerals they carry great Machines of Bambou covered with painted and gilded Paper which represents not only Palaces Moveables Elephants and other common Animals but some hideous Monsters some of which resemble the humane Figure and which the Christians take for the Figures of Devils They burn not the Coffin but they take out the body which they leave on the Pile and the Talapoins of the Convent near which the body is burnt do sing for a quarter of an hour and then retire to appear no more Then begin the shows of the Cone and of the Rabam which are at the same time and all the day long but on different Theaters The Talapoins think not that they can be present thereat without Sin and these Shows are not exhibited at Funerals upon any religious Account but only to render them more magnificent To the Ceremony they add a festival Air and yet the Relations of the deceased forbear not to make great Lamentations and to shed many Tears but they hire no Mourners as some have assured me About Noon the Tapacaou or Servant of the Talapoins sets fire to the Pile The Servant of the Talapoins lights the Funeral Pile which generally burns for two hours The Fire never consumes the body it only roasts it and oftentimes very ill but it is always reputed for the Honor of the deceased that he has been wholly consumed in an eminent place and that there remains only his Ashes If it is the Body of a Prince of the Blood or of a Lord whom the King has loved the King himself sets fire to the Pile without stirring out of his Palace He le ts go a lighted Torch along a Rope which is extended from one of the Windows of the Palace to the Pile As to the cut Papers which are naturally designed for the Flames the Talapoins do frequently secure them and seize them to lend them to other Funerals and the Family of the deceased permits them to do it In which it appears that they have forgot the reason why the neighbouring Nations dispence not from burning such Papers effectually and in general it may be asserted that there are no Persons in the world which do ignore their own Religion so much as the Talapoins It is very difficult say some to find any one amongst them that knows any thing It is necessary to seek their Opinions in the Balie Books which they keep and which they study very little Alms at Funerals The Family of the deceased entertains the Train and for three days it bestows Alms viz. On the day that the body is burnt to the Talapoins which have sung over the body the next day to their whole Convent and the third day to their Temple Funerals redoubled This is what is practised at the Funerals of the Siameses to which it is requisite only to add that they imbellish the Show with a great many Fire-works and that if the Funerals are for a man of great consequence they last with the same Shows for three days Bodies dug up to receive greater Funeral Honors It sometimes also happens that a Person of great Quality causes the body of his Father to be digged up again though a long time dead to make him a pompous Funeral if when he died they made him not such a one as was worthy of the present Elevation of the Son This participates of the Customs of the Chineses who communicate as much as they can to their dead Relations the Honors to which they arrive Thus when a man not born a Kings Son arrives at the Crown of China he will with certain Ceremonies cause the Title of King to be given to his deceased Father What the fire consumes not is buried under Pyramids and how the Siameses do call these Pyramids After the body of a Siamese has been burnt as I have said the whole Show is ended they shut up the remains of his Body in the Coffin without any Order and this depositum is laid under one of those Pyramids wherewith they encompass their Temples Sometimes also they bury precious Stones and other Riches with the body because that it is to put them in a place which Religion renders inviolable Some there are who say that they cast the Ashes of their Kings into the River and I have read of the Peguins that they make a Paste of the Ashes of their Kings with Milk and that they bury it at the
the West to the East only by the North. So that the Wind continually veers about the Heaven passing from the North to the East and from the East to the South and from the South to the West and from the West to the North and almost never in the contrary manner Yet in the temperate Zone which is on the South of the Line when we navigated those Seas which are on the East of Africk we experimented in our return from Siam that the Winds went always contrary to this Rule but to assert whether this may be always so requires more than one Proof However it be the Wind goes not so in the Gulph of Siam but it only encompasses the Heaven in a year whereas on our Seas it does it in a small number of days and sometimes in one day When in the Indies the Wind blows round the Compass in a day it is stormy This is what they properly call a Hurricane In the Months of March April and May the South-wind prevails at Siam the Heaven is disorder'd the Rains begin and are very frequent in April In June they are almost continual and the Winds do turn to the West that is to say do blow from the West and the South In July August and September the Winds are in the West or almost West and always accompany'd with Rains the Waters overflowing the Earth to the breadth of nine or ten Miles and above One hundred and fifty to the North of the Gulph During this time and especially towards the middle of July the Tides are so strong that they ascend up to Siam and sometimes to Louvo and they decrease in twenty four hours with that measure that the Water becomes sweet again before Bancock in an hour tho' Bancock be seven Miles from the mouth of the River yet the Water is always somewhat brackish In October the Winds do blow from the West and the North and the Rains do cease In November and December the Winds are North do clear the Heavens and seem so exceedingly to lower the Sea that in few days it receives all the Waters of the Inundation Then the Tides are so insensible that the Water is always sweet two or three Leagues in the River and that at certain hours of the day it is the same for a League in the Road. But at Siam there never is more than an Ebb and Floud in twenty four hours In January the Winds have already turn'd to the East and in February they blow from the East and the South 'T is a considerable Circumstance that at the time when the Winds are in the West or that they blow from the West the Currents of the Gulph do rapidly carry the Ships on the Eastern Coast which is that of Camboya and do hinder them from coming back again and that at the time when the Winds are to the East or that they blow from the East the Currents do run on the Western Coast so that then in Sailing it is necessary to fear being bore away Now this proves in my opinion that the Winds have a great share in the motions of the Sea forasmuch as some have proved that these Currents are only in the upper parts of the Waters and that underneath they have a quite contrary Current because that the upper Waters being continually rowled on the Shore returns underneath towards the Coast from whence it came After the same manner it seems that they are the South-winds which drive on the Flux and maintain it for six Months further up in the River and that they are the North-winds which do hinder it the entrance of the River for the six other Months The Bananier A Bunch of Banana's The Jacquier The Tree which bears the Durions The Potatos-Tree The Ananas The Mango Tree The Coco Tree Three Siamese Alphabets 1 Ko Khò Khó Khò Khoo Khoo-ngo cho chó chò Sò choo yo do to thò thó thoo no â—o po ppò fo ppo mo no ro lo vo So Só Só hò lo 2 Kâ Kà Ki Keú Keû Koù Kû Ké Kê Ka Kaái Ko Kà on Kam Ka Keúy Kaái Kâou Kiou Küon Keuy Keúï Koú̈y Koúi 3 Keòn Keôu Koú̈y Kôï Kouáï Kiaóu Kiá The Sequel of this Alphabet is in the following Plate A Description of the principal Fruits of Siam THE Figs of India which the Siameses do call Clouey-ngouan-tchang Elephant's Trunks have not the taste of our Figs and in my mind they are not so good Thus the Melons of Siam are not true Melons but the Fruit of a Tree known in the Isles of America under the name of Papayer I have not eaten of this Fruit. But to return to the Fig it is of the size and shape of a Sausage It s green Skin which waxes yellow and spotted with black in its maturity is easily separated from its soft and clammy pulp and 't is that which has given it the name of Fig but in the midst of its pulp there is no vacuity nor any of those kernels which do make as it were a little gravel in our Figs when they are a little dry'd It s taste is strong and it has something of sharpness and sweetness both together The Bananas which the Siameses do call Clouey-ngaa-tchang or Elephant's Tooth is almost the same thing as the Fig save that it is greener and longer and that it has Angles and Faces or flat Sides which are re-united point-wise at both ends These Fruits do hang like Nosegays or rather like great Bunches of Grapes from the top of the Trunk of the Trees which bear them The Figs grow hard in the Fire the Bananas which are not altogether so delicate raw do wax soft again do there lose their sweetness and do acquire the taste of our Pippins ripen'd on the Apple Tree The Goyaye in Siamese Louc-Kiac Louc signifies Son Kiac is the name of the Goyavier is about the size of a middling Apple It s Skin is of a grayish green like that of certain Pears under this Skin is a pulp of the consistence of that of the Citron but not so white When it is put into the mouth it savors the Strawberry but this Strawberry taste soon loses itself because it becomes too strong This pulp which exceeds not the thickness of a Crown-piece contains a liquid substance like Broth but grayish and which would not be less pleasant to eat than the pulp if it was not mix'd with an innumerable number of small kernels so hard that it would be difficult to chew them The Jacques in Siamese Ca-noun are of the shape of a great Melon ill rounded Under a grayish Skin fashioned like Chagrin they have a very great number of kernels or stones stones if we consider their magnitude which is almost like a Pigeon's Egg kernels by the thin and smooth wood which incloses them These stones therefore or kernels being broil'd or boil'd differ not from our Chestnuts either in taste or consistence excepting that they are
return to the Cape where he might be useful to them amongst those of his own Nation But so soon as he found himself again amongst them he continued there and renounced the Dutch Habit and Manner of living They commit no Robbery amongst themselves nor in the Houses of the Hollanders where they are received without Care and if the thing happens they punish it with Death Nevertheless in the Country when they can do it securely and that they think not to be discovered they do sometimes assassinate to rob and do show that the Contempt of Riches is amongst them only the Hatred of work The Dutch do nominate their Chief and this Chief is their Judge but those who could not bear this Foreign Dependance are gone further into the Country to live with the other Caffres Some informed me at first that they had no sence of Religion but at last I understood that tho they have neither Priests nor Temples yet they make public rejoycing which savor of Worship at the New and Full Moons I suspect that they have some Tincture of Manicheisme because that they acknowledge a Principle of Good and another of Evil which they call the Captain above and the Captain below The Captain above they say is good it is not necessary to pray to him 't is only needful to let him act freely he always does good But the Captain below is wicked he must be prayed to and intreated to divert him from mischief 'T is thus that they speak but it appears not in their exterior Conduct that they pray much A Dutchman of Wit and Knowledge informed me that amongst the Hotantots he had found the Names of Asdrubal and of Bocchus Rules of the Siamese Astronomy for calculating the Motions of the Sun and Moon translated from the Siamese and since examined and explained by M. Cassini a Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences MOnsieur de la Loubere the King's Ambassador extraordinary at Siam brought back a Siamese Manuscript which comprehends the Rules for calculating the motions of the Sun and Moon according to the method of that Country the Translation thereof he likewise brought from Siam and communicated unto me This method is extraordinary They make no use of Tables but only of the Addition Substraction Multiplication and Division of certain numbers of which we do not presently discern the Ground nor to what these numbers refer Under these numbers are conceal'd divers Periods of Solar Years of Lunar Months and other Revolutions and the Relation of the one with the other Under these numbers are likewise conceal'd several sorts of Epoches which are not distinguished as the Civil Epoche the Epoche of the Lunar Months that of the Equinoxes Apogaea and Solar Cycle The numbers in which the difference between these Epoches consists are not ordinarily at the head of the Operations to which they serve as they ought to be according to the Natural Order they are often mixed with certain numbers and the Sums or differences are multiplied or divided by others for they are not always simple numbers but frequently they are Fractions sometimes Simple sometimes Compound without being ranged after the manner of Fractions the Numerator being sometimes in one Article and the Denominator in another as if they had had a contrived design to conceal the Nature and Use of these numbers In the Calculation of the Sun they intermix some things which appertain only to the Moon and others which are not necessary either to the one or to the other without making any distinction They confound together the Solar and the Lunisolar Years the Months of the Moon and the Months of the Sun the Civil and the Astronomical Months the Days Natural and the Days Artificial The Zodiack is divided sometimes into twelve Signs according to the number of the Month of the Year sometimes into 27 parts according to the number of the Days that the Moon runs through the Zodiack and sometimes in 30 parts according to the number of the Days that the Moon returns to the Sun In the Division of the Day there is no discourse of Hours but therein is found the 11th the 703d and the 800th parts of the Day which result from the Arithmetical Operations which are prescribed This Method is ingenious and being illustrated rectified and purged from Superfluities it will be of some use being practicable without books by the means of divers Cycles and of the difference of their Epoches Wherefore it is that I have endeavoured to decypher it what difficulty soever I found at first not only by reason of the confusion which every where appeared and of the Names which are wanting in the supposed numbers but likewise by reason of the extraordinary names which are given to what results from the Operations of which there are more than Twenty which have not been interpreted by the Translator and of which I could never have found the Signification if I had not first discover'd the method which has likewise evinced to me that the Interpretation which the Translator has made of three or four other names is not very exact In this research I have first distinguished and separated from the other numbers those which belong to the Epoches having observed that these numbers are those which were given to add or to substract either simply or by dividing or multiplying them by certain other numbers Secondly I have considered the Analogies which result from the Multiplications and Divisions of the other numbers separated from the Epoches and it is in the Terms of these Analogies that I have found the Periods of the Years of the Months and of the Days and the differences of the one from the other which the experience of things Astronomical and the occasion of divers operations which I have made has given me to understand I thought that the Missionaries to whom Astronomy gives admittance amongst the great and learned throughout the East might reap some advantage from this work for the Understanding and for the Explication of the Oriental Astronomy which might easily be rectified and adapted to ours with a little altering the Method by correcting the numbers which it uses I thought also that it would not be useless to reduce the Astronomy of Europe to this form to be able to supply the want of the Tables which greatly abridge the work This method would be much more easie to practise in the form of the Julian and Gregorian year of which we make use than in the form of the Lunisolar year which the Orientals observe for their principal difficulty consists in reducing the Lunisolar years and the Civil Lunary months to the years and months of the Sun which the form of our Kalender immediately gives us and what has given me the most trouble has been to find out the method which they use to reduce them in which the several sorts of Years Months and Days which are supposed and sought are not distinguished Wherefore the reason of the
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
of the Artificial day to the end of the Natural day Altho according to this rule the Anamaan can never amount to 703 yet if 703 be set down for the Anamaan and it be divided by 25 according to the 2d Article they have 28 3 25 for the Quotient Adding 28 to 703 according to the third Article the sum 731 will be a number of minutes of a degree Dividing 731 by 60 according to the fourth Article the Quotient which is 12d. 11′ is the middle diurnal motion by which the Moon removes from the Sun From what has been said in the II Section it results that in 30 days the Anamaan augments 330. Dividing 330 by 25 there is in the Quotient 13 ⅓ Adding this Quotient to the Anamaan the summ is 343 that is to say 5d. 43′ which the Moon removes from the Sun in 30 days besides the entire Circle The European Tables do make the diurnal motion of 12d. 11′ and middle motion in 30 days of 5d. 43′ 21″ besides the entire Circle 5. Set down as many days as you have before put to the month current Sect. II. n. 3. 6. Multiply this number by 12. 7. Divide the whole by 30 the Quotient put it to the Raasi of the preceding figure which has an 0 at the Raasi and joyn the fraction to the Ongsaa of the figure 8. Joyn this whole figure to the Mattejomme of the Sun 9. Substract 40 from the Libedaa But if this cannot be you may deduct 1 from the Ongsaa which will be 60 Libedaa 10. What shall remain in the figure is the Mattejomme of the Moon sought Explication After having found out the degrees and the minutes which agree to the Anamaan they seek the signs and degrees which agree to the Artificial days of the current month For to multiply them by 12 and to divide them by 30 is the same thing as to say If thirty Artificial days do give 12 Signs what will the Artificial days of the current month give they will have the Signs in the Quotient The Fractions are the 30ths of a Sign that is to say of the degrees They joyn them therefore to the degrees found by the Anamaan which is the surplusage of the Natural days above the Artificial The Figure here treated of is the Moons distance from the Sun after they have deducted 40 minutes which is either a Correction made to the Epocha or the reduction of one Meridian to another as shall be explain'd in the sequel This distance of the Moon from the Sun being added to the middle place of the Sun gives the middle-place of the Moon XI 1. Set down the Outhiapponne 2. Multiply by 3. 3. Divide by 808. 4. Put the Quotient to the Raasi 5. Multiply the fraction by 30. 6. Divide it by 808 the Quotient will be Ongsaa 7. Take the remaining fraction and multiply it by 60. 8. Divide the summ by 808 the Quotient will be Libedaa 9. Add 2 to the Libedaa the Raasi the Ongsaa and the Libedaa will be the Mattejomme of Louthia which you shall keep Explication Upon the VI. Section it is remarked that the Outhiapponne is the number of the Days after the return of the Moon 's Apogaeum which is performed in 3232 Days 808 Days are therefore the fourth part of the time of the Revolution of the Moon 's Apogaeum during which it makes 3 Signs which are the fourth part of the Circle By these Operations therefore they find the motion of the Moon 's Apogaeum making as 808 Days are to 3 Signs so the time passed from the return of the Moon 's Apogaeum is to the motion of the same Apogaeum during this time It appears by the following Operation that this motion is taken from the same Principle of the Zodiack from whence the motion of the Sun is taken The Mattejomme of Louthia is the Place of the Moon 's Apogaeum XII For the Sommepont of the Moon 1. Set down the Mattejomme of the Moon 2. Over against it set the Mattejomme of Louthia 3. Substract the Mattejomme of Louthia from the Mattejomme of the Moon 4. What remains in the Raasi will be the Kenne 5. If the Kenne is 0 1 2 multiply it by 2 and it will be the Kanne 6. If the Ken is 3 4 5 substract it from this figure 5 29 60 7. If the Ken is 6 7 8 substract from it 6. 8. If the Ken is 9 10 11 substract it from this figure 11 29 60 9. If the Kenne is 1 or 2 multiply it by 2 this will be the Kanne 10. Deduct 15 from the Ongsaa if possible you shall add 1 to the Raasi if not you shall not do it 11. Multiply the Ongsaa by 60 and add thereunto the Libedaa and it will be the Pouchalit that you shall keep 12. Take into the Moons Chajaa the number conformable to the Kanne as it has been said of the Sun substract the upper number from the lower 13. Take the remainder and therewith multiply the Pouchalit 14. Divide this by 900. 15. Add this Quotient to the upper number of the Moons Chajaa 16. Divide this by 60 the Quotient will be Ongsaa the Fraction Libedaa and an 0 for the Raasi 17. Opposite to this figure set the Mattejomme of the Moon 18. Consider the Ken. If the Ken is 0 1 2 3 4 5 substract the figure of the Moons Mattejomme if the Ken is 6 7 8 9 10 11 joyn the two figures together and you will have the Sommepont of the Moon which you shall keep Explication All these Rules are conformable to those of the VIII Section to find the place of the Sun and are sufficiently illustrated by the explication made of that Section The difference in the Chajaa of the Moon discoursed of in the 14th and 15th Article This Chajaa consists in these numbers 77 148 209 256 286 296 The greatest Equation of the Moon is therefore of 4 degrees 56 minutes as some Modern Astronomers do make it though the generality do make it of 5 degrees in the Conjunctions and Oppositions XIII Set down the Sommepont of the Moon and operating as you have done in the Sommepont of the Sun you will find the Reuc and Nattireuc of the Moon Explication This Operation has been made for the Sun in the IX Section It is to find the position of the Moon in her Stations which are the 27 parts of the Zodiac XIV 1. Set down the Sommepont of the Moon 2. Over against it set the Sommepont of the Sun 3. Substract the Sommepont of the Sun from the Sommepont of the Moon and the Pianne will remain which you shall keep Explication The Pianne is therefore the Moon 's distance from the Sun XV. 1. Take the Pianne and set it down 2. Multiply the Raasi by 30 add the Ongsaa thereunto 3. Multiply the whole by 60 and thereunto add the Libedaa 4. Divide the whole by 720 the Quotient is called Itti which you shall keep 5. Divide the Fraction
found in the preceding hundredth Bissextile shall be deducted 5 days 2 h 12′ for the first double for the second triple for the third borrowing a month of 29 days 12 h 44′ if it is required and you will have the Epact in the hundred proposed which shall be made use of in the preceding example comparing it with the middle Equinox of the same year By this method will be found the middle oppositions in the hundred years not Bissextile a day before that they are set down Expl. Cal. p. 484. ad 561. p. 201. 284. from the year 1700 to the year 5000 in the Table of the Movable Feasts which is in the Book of the explication of the Calendar where they are set down a day later than the Gregorian Hypotheses require Ap. 596. ad p. 609. p. 634. Which has happened also in the precepts and in the examples of finding the progresses of the new and full Moons and in the Epocha's of the hundred years not Bissextile and in all the Calculations which are deduced thence as is found by comparing together the new Moons calculated in the same Table the Anticipation whereof which from one common year to another must always be 10 days 15 hours is found sometimes 9 days 15 hours as from the year 1699 to the year 1700 sometimes 11 days 15 hours as from the year 1700 to 1701 and so likewise in the other hundreds not Bissextile Upon this account there were some differences which gave occasion carefully to examine the progress of the new Moon from one Gregorian hundredth to the other Expl. Cal. p. 595. and yet these disputes were not capable of unfolding at that time the real differences that there is between several hundred Common and Bissextile years But as these Calculations of the full Moons have been made only to examine the Epacts which were regulated otherwise the differences fell only under examination which being rectified demonstrates the exactness of these Gregorian Epacts much greater than the very Authors of the Correction supposed it 'T is a thing worthy of remark that the Astronomical Hypotheses of the Gregorian Calendar are found at present more conformable to the Coelestial motions than they were supposed at the time of the correction for as it appears by the project which Pope Gregory XIII sent to the Christian Princes in the year 1577 he proposed in the regulation of the years to follow the Alphonsine Tables which were judged to be preferable to the others but to retrench three days in 400 Julian years he was obliged to suppose the solar year shorter by some seconds than the Alphonsine and to prefer this conveniency to a greater exactness and yet all the Astronomers which have since compared the modern observations with the ancient have found that the Tropical year is indeed somewhat shorter than the Alphonsine altho they be not agreed in the precise difference The greatness of the lunar month which results from the Gregorian Hypothesis of the Equation of the Epacts which is 8 days in 2500 Julian years is also more conformable to the modern Astronomers than the lunar month of the Alphonsine and the disposition of the Gregorian Epacts and the new and full Moons which result therefrom are also oftentimes more precise than they which finished the correction pretended In fine the whole system of the Gregorian Calendar has some Beauties which have not been known by those who were the Authors thereof as is that of giving the Epacts conformable to those which are found by the great lunisolar period which has for Epocha the same year of Jesus Christ and the very day which according to the antient tradition immediately precedes the day of the Incarnation from whence may be drawn the Equinoxes and new Moons with more facility than from the Aegyptian Epocha of the Golden number of which they would in some manner keep the relation 'T were to be wish'd that seeing that in the project sent to the Christian Princes and to the Universities Expl. Cal. p. 4. it was proposed to retrench 10 or 12 days from the Julian year about the end of the past Age they had retrenched 12 which is the difference between 1600 Julian years and 1600 Gregorian years to place the Equinoxes on the same days of the Gregorian year as they were in the Julian year according to the form re-established by Augustus in the Epocha of Jesus Christ rather than to restore them to the days whereon they were at the time of the strange Epocha chosen by the Alexandrians for their particular conveniency and that instead of regulating the Epacts by the defective Cycle of the Alexandrians and of seeking Equations and Corrections for the Epacts born by this Cycle they had also taken heed to the great lunisolar period of 11600 years that we have proposed which immediately gives the true days of the Epacts which reduces the new Moons to the same day of the year and of the week and which has the most august and most memorable Epocha amongst the Christians that can be imagined I doubt not that if from this time they had found this period which we have proposed they would have employ'd it not only for the Excellency of its Epocha but also because the greatness of the month which it supposes is as conformable to the Alphonsine Tables as the greatness of the year which they establish to conform themselves to these Tables the most that the conveniency of the calculation did permit For this period is composed of 143472 lunar months and of 4236813 natural days and consequently it supposes the lunar month 29 days 12 h 44′ 3″ 5‴ 28″″ 48‴″ 20‴‴ and the Alphonsine Tables do suppose it 29 days 12 h 44′ 3″ 2‴ 58″″ 51‴″ which is shorter by 2‴ than that of our period According to Tycho Brahe the lunar month is 29 days 12 h 44′ 3″ 8‴ 29″″ 46‴″ 48‴‴ which exceeds ours by three thus this month is a mean between that of Alphonsus and that of Tycho Brahe Therefore this great period composed of a number of these whole months and of a number of Gregorian periods of 400 years and consequently of entire weeks and entire days might be proposed to serve as a Rule to compare all the other periods together and to relate the times before and after the Epocha of Jesus Christ which would be the end of the first of our periods and the beginning of the second and as this great period has been invented in the exercises which are perform'd in the Royal Academy of Sciences and in the Observatory Royal under the Protection and by the Orders of the King it seems that if the Julian period has taken its name from Julius Caesar and the Gregorian from Gregory XIII this might also justly be named the lunisolar period of LOVIS LE GRAND Note That what is said at the beginning of Page 189 that in this extract the numbers are written from the top to the bottom