The Hottentots, as has been said, have no interest in their own age, but keep in mind that of their cattle from the calving and lambing periods. When they wish to date back somewhat farther, well-known events such as the outbreak of cattle-plague, hostilities with neighbouring tribes or with the whites, immigrations, etc. furnish them with satisfactory general indications from which, coupling them in particular cases with the birth of their children or the stature of these at the time, they can arrive at a date[445]. Where the political development has advanced so far that a stable monarchy exists, the succession of rulers offers an excellent means of chronological orientation, and within every reign certain years can be distinguished by special events. But this brings us to the beginning of history, and I desist from following the subject further. One example only:--The Baganda reckon by the reigns of the kings and by certain wars in one particular reign. They say ‘It was in the reign of such a king’, or ‘I was still in arms when such and such a war was fought in so and so’s reign’[446]. Where no reigns furnish a system of chronological reckoning, the concrete references may be systematised until each year is named and distinguished by a definite event. This was the practice of the Arabians before Mohammed. Mohammed is said to have been born in the year of the elephant, or, according to other sources, some years after the year in which the viceroy of Yemen marched against Mecca with an army in which there were elephants[447]. Another year is called the year of treason or outrage, because certain garments which a Himjarite king had sent that year to Mecca were stolen, whence arose a conflict at the feast of pilgrims, in which the young Mohammed is said to have taken part[448].