M. Brugsch has since endeavoured to identify this division of the year into three seasons with the hierogly

phical division into sha, summer (autumn ?),

pro, winter, and

ww

shum, summer.

The commencement of one of these, the Water Season, or Inundation, we can accurately define, not merely historically, but also astronomically."

For thousands of years past, the rising of the Nile below the second cataract (Syene) always commences at the solstice. From that time it continues to rise, until at length it overflows. According to Herodotus, as well as the observations of the French scholars and all travellers, the inundation comes to its height after the lapse of 100 days.

Assuming, then, the solstice to be on June 21-22., the inundation would be at its height a little before the 1st of October. It remains at that height for a few days, and then gradually subsides.

As the water retires, in Upper Egypt at the beginning, in the Delta in the middle, of October, the Egyptian puts his seed into the moist productive ground. From 120 to 125 days after the beginning of the inundation, that is, about the end of October, it begins to sprout. The Water Season therefore corresponds with the four months after the solstice, or pretty nearly with July, August, September, and October.

The Green Season accordingly comprised November, December, January, and February; and there remains for the Harvest Season, March, April, May, and June. The signs of the months, on the contrary, are follows:7

6 This subject is ably treated by Lepsius, Einleitung, p. 147.

et seq.

7 The names of the months (which, though new to us and only known from the Coptic and Arabic transcripts of them, were Old

FIRST TETRAMENY.-The Green Season.

1st of Green Season November.

2nd

I. Thoth II. Phaophi III. Hathor

Egyptian), and perhaps even the original way of pronouncing the above hieroglyphical signs, have been satisfactorily explained for the first time by Lepsius, who has drawn from them some very important conclusions for the whole history of the Egyptian calendar. (Einl. p. 133-145.; comp. p. 154. and other passages.)

In referring my readers to the text of my friend's learned and generally conclusive researches, the following brief summary of the astonishing results of them are here submitted. The names of the gods of the months are recorded in the Ramesseum and at Edfoo.

I. THOTH, THÔYTH, from Tet, the Hermes of the Egyptians, probably as the opener of the year and of each month, like Janus. Techi, however, is the goddess of the months, probably merely an epithet of Isis.

II. PAÔPE, PHAÔPHIS, i. e. the (month) of the

perhaps a name of Ptah: such is the name of the month-god, designated also by the epithet Menkh, Evepyérns. [Perhaps the root is hotep, offered, offerer (Gr. öpis, in the royal names) as an epithet of Ptah, like Ptah-Sokari (?).] III. ATHÔR, ATHYR, ATHYRI, a name of Venus, the goddess of the months.

IV. CHOIAK, in its complete form CHOIAHK, Arab. Kihak: the

It is clear that the months must have been thus designated at a period when the 1st of Thoth fell about the 25th of October.

It is easy for astronomers to calculate when and how

month-goddess Kahika; in Thebes, Pacht: the former probably an epithet of the same goddess.

SECOND TETRAMENY. The Harvest Season.

V. TôBE, TÔBI, TYBI: tutelary god, Khem, Tehef-teb at Edfoo. The second part of the word explains the name. VI. MECHIR, EMCHIR: the jackal-idol (the Nile-horse at Edfoo), with the addition rekh-ur, "great fire."

VII. PHAMENOTH, in Theb. PAREMHOT: explanation doubtful: the idol also a jackal (Nile-horse at Edfoo), with the addition rekh-si, "small fire."

This general designation of the 6th and 7th months is very ancient. It was found by Lepsius on a monument of the 12th Dynasty (p. 154.). It alludes to a division into the two halves of the year. According to Plut. de Is. c. 44. the jackal was the symbol of the horizon, as being the line of demarcation between the upper and lower hemispheres.

VIII. PHARMUTHI refers to Termuthi, the Great Mother (t. ur mut): the sign is a goddess with the snake. The name she is known by is Kennen, the Snake Goddess; but Termuthis occurs with this symbol.

THIRD TETRAMENY. - The Water Season.

IX. PACHÔN, PACHONS, PASHÔNS, from the god Chensu, Chunsu, Gr. Chôns (Herakles), son of Ammon and Muth. X. PAON, PAYNI: the sign Hôrus with the name FENTI [possibly the original signification was Typhonian (Set), uôn, ûn, the Opener, as Osiris is afterwards styled].

XI. EPEP, EPIP, EPIPHI: symbol, the frog-headed goddess Ap, Ep. The Arabic form, Abib, is evidently the Hebrew name of the gleaning month, Abib (the gleaning). At the time of the Exodus the movable Epep would have coincided with the vernal equinox.

XII. MESÔRE, MESORI, MESÔRI: sign, "Her-Ra (Horus, Sun) of the two hemispheres: " the explanation, therefore, certainly must be Mes-her-ra, the birth of the Sun-Horus, in reference to the winter solstice, the birth of the sun of the new year. This is another proof that the ordinary year commenced on the first of Thoth.

often in the course of the ancient history of the world this took place. Biot, on the basis of accurate computations made in conjunction with Champollion, has given a very lucid exposition of the result. Although their task was not finished when Champollion died, the papers which he left enabled the great astronomer to complete it, and the results were published by him in 1831.8

The principal conclusions were as follows. In the olden time 1505 solar years were almost exactly equal to 1506 years of 365 days. Consequently every 1505 years the 1st of Thoth would fall on the 25th of October, and coincide with the beginning of the Green Season. This was the case in the following years B. C.:

275-1780-3285.

The evidence of the monuments renders it unnecessary to prove that the Egyptians did not so designate their months for the first time in the age of the Ptolemies. They are, on the contrary, thus designated throughout all the Pharaonic monuments; so that this notation can be shown on contemporary monuments much earlier than the second period, 1780 B. C.9

In so far, therefore, as the establishment of this designation depends upon the above coincidence, it is mathematically certain that it must have occurred in or about the year 3285 B. C. According to our criticism of the Lists and Monuments, this is the date of the 3rd Dynasty, which was contemporaneous with the 2nd,

• Recherches sur l'Année vague des Égyptiens. Par M. Biot. Lues à l'Académie des Inscriptions le 30 mars, et à l'Académie des Sciences le 4 avril 1831. 4.

9 Lepsius has shown that the signs of the months are found on the very oldest monuments, the end of the 3rd and 4th Dynasties (Einl. p. 220.). He found the 5 Epagomenæ, with their well-known signs, on the monuments of the 12th (p. 146.); at all events, therefore, long before 1780.

and the traditional epoch from which the great organic institutions of the Old-Egyptian empire dated.10

B.

THE CANICULAR CYCLE OF 1400 YEARS MUST HAVE BEEN INSTITUTED IN EGYPT NOT LATER THAN ABOUT 2800, AND NOT EARLIER THAN 3300 B.C.11

In order to extend our inquiry into the commencement of the notation of the months by means of astronomy, we must introduce into it another element the CANICULAR PERIOD, the Cycle of Sothis, or Sirius.

We learn from the trustworthy testimony of Censorinus that the Egyptians possessed a Great Year, which they styled the Sothiac Year, because on the first day of it the sun rose at the same moment as Sirius-Sothis. He states that one of these great years commenced 100 years before his time. The date at which he wrote is the year 238, in the consulship of Antoninus Pius II. and Bruttius Præsens. In that year, A.D. 139, the Egyptian year really commenced with the 20th of July of the Julian year, and in that year also Sirius rose in Central Egypt about seven o'clock, consequently only some few hours later than is assumed. Four years afterwards, therefore, this heliacal rising took place about a day after the beginning of the new year, and so, after four times 365 years, about a whole civil year later. Hence the Sothiac cycle appears to be a period of 1460 years; in the 1461st Egyptian year the first of Thoth again coincided with the same day of the Julian year. Consequently the year 1322 B. c. is the beginning of that cycle which ended A. D. 139. The first of Thoth

10 According to Lepsius' chronology, in the 4th Dynasty. 11 Upon this point we refer our readers to Lepsius, p. 157. et seq.