154 The Rev. E. Hincks on the Years and Cycles 



to the commencement of the wandering year, having taken place on every day 

 of it. 



5th. The length of each of the smaller cycles was 300 years. Consequently, 

 the epoch when the wandering year -was introduced was 1767 B. C. ; and the 

 first day of the first year was the 8th November, 1767, according to the proleptic 

 Julian reckoning. 



Of the truth of the two first of these propositions I have long been convinced. 

 The three last are the result of an investigation, which was suggested to me by 

 a reference to a passage in Tacitus, which I noticed in an article on the Pyramids 

 in Eraser's Magazine for November, 1837. On examining the passage referred 

 to, I felt convinced that the ingenious author of the article had drawn an incor- 

 rect inference from it ; and, endeavouring to ascertain what information it really 

 conveyed, I became satisfied of the truth of the third of the above propositions. 

 From this I soon passed to the fourth and fifth, the latter of which, being the 

 grand result, to which the rest are subsidiary, I have since been able to confirm 

 by independent arguments. 



I. The first proposition I by no means offer as a new one. It is an obvious 

 consequence of the discoveries of the late lamented Champollion, respecting the 

 hieroglyphical notation of the year ; and it must be at once acquiesced in by all 

 who are acquainted with those discoveries. I shall, however, say a few words in 

 explanation and support of it. 



It was demonstrated by Champollion that the Egyptians divided their year, 

 exclusive of the Epagomenas, into three seasons ; and that they denominated 

 them hieroglyphically the first, second, third, and fourth months of these three 

 seasons. He interpreted the characters which stood for the three seasons to 

 mean, respectively, vegetation, ingathering, and inundation. Whatever doubt 

 there may be as to the correctness of the two former interpretations, there can be 

 none as to the last. It is beyond all question that the hieroglyphic names for 

 the four last months of the year are the first, second, third, and fourth months of 

 the inundation. Now, as the Egyptian year of 365 days was in its nature a 

 wandering one, and as any given day of it would in course of time pass through 

 all the seasons of the solar year, it follows that the seasons of the wandering year 

 would sometimes coincide with those seasons of the fixed year, of which they 

 bore the names. These epochs of coincidence between the wandering year and 



