Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/365

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MOCHA.
357
Y. M.
El Semera 3 0

El-Abreha and El-Atzbeha or Ai­zana and Saiza­na[1]

26 6
El Aiba 16 0
El Iskandi 36 0
El Tshemo 9 0
El San 13 0
El Aiga 18 0
El Ameda 40 8
El Ahiawya[2] 3 0
Asfah[2]
Arfad[2]
Amosi[2]
Seladoba[2]
sup. 32 0
Ameda.

In the Chronicle itself a somewhat different order is observed from the one I have given,[3] Abreha and Atzbeha being inserted after El Ahiawya, and not in the situation where I have ventured to put them; but, if any reliance may be placed upon the list, it is evident that, in the arrangement found in the Chronicle, there must exist a very striking error; for the whole sum of years there given, from the 8th year of Bazen, to the 13th of Abreha, must amount to four hundred and sixty-five years; whereas the Chronicle itself expressly states that a period of three hundred and thirty only had elapsed. This inconsistency first led me to suspect the mistake, which, on subsequent and attentive consideration, I became satisfied had taken place: and therefore I feel myself justified in arranging Abreha and Atzbeha according to the date of the period in which they reigned, after "El Semera," and considering the remainder of the names

  1. The reader will observe here a striking coincidence, that by taking the eight years of Bazen, which happened subsequently to the birth of Christ, and adding the thirteen in Abreha's reign, at which period Christianity was introduced, it forms precisely three hundred and thirty years, the period which is stated to have elapsed between those two events in the Chronicles.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 It is probable that all these five names should be also removed, El Ahiawya being placed before El Abreha, and the other three following immediately after: and then, instead of two, there would be only one Ameda: but I have not ventured to make this alteration; though, to confirm the propriety of it, one of the Chronicles states, that the space between the 8th year of Bazen and the 15th of Abreha was three hundred and thirty-three years.
  3. Vide Mr. Murray's Appendix to Vol. VII. of Mr. Bruce, who partly collected his information from lists which I brought into the country.