used by the Ancient Egyptians. 159 



of his ignorant copyist. The clause in which he inserts the words of quotation, 

 (dJy (pouTi,) I take to have been copied, and to contain a statement which is 

 probably true ; the preceding and following clauses I believe to be Georgius's 

 own, and to contain his blundering gloss on the original statement, and his re- 

 assertion of it when perverted by that gloss. I conceive that the unnamed 

 author simply made the following statement. " In his time" — it is uncertain 

 whether he is speaking of Assis, the shepherd, or of the father of Tethmosis ; but 

 it is certain that these were not identical, as Georgius imagined ; — " in his time 

 the Egyptian year was appointed to consist of 365 days." The chronological 

 epoch of the eighteenth century before Christ might very well occur in the 

 reign of Assis, the shepherd, if the chronological system of Mr. CuUimore be 

 correct ; or in that of the predecessor of Amos, the founder of the eighteenth 

 dynasty, if Champollion and Rosellini be in the right. Now, the author of 

 this statement may have intended to point out the reign in which the wandering 

 year of 365 days succeeded the old fixed year. But Georgius, having heard or 

 read the statement of Plutarch, already referred to, that once on a time the year 

 had only 360 days, explained what his author had said of the abandonment of 

 the old fixed year, in reference to a supposed abandonment of the imaginary 

 year of 360 days ; he added the words, "which before this was composed of only 

 360 ;" and, to make his meaning still clearer, he put the entire into other words, 

 *' he added the five additional days of the years." This may, or may not, be the 

 source of the erroneous statement of Georgius ; but that the statement is errp- 

 neous, I can entertain no doubt whatsoever. The continuance of the use of a 

 year of 360 days to so late a date as about 1780 B. C. is far too improbable to be 

 admitted on the testimony of a writer, so recent, and of such weak judgment, as 

 Georgius Syncellus. 



2. But it may be asked, might not a year of 365 days have been substituted 

 for one of 360, at an earlier period than 1780 B. C, when the Egjrptians were 

 less civilized, and before they had intercourse with other nations ? To a believer 

 in the divine record respecting the peopling of Egypt, it might be sufficient to 

 reply, that no such period of want of civilization and isolation from other nations, 

 as this question presumes the existence of, can be supposed. When Ham and his 

 descendants settled in Egypt, they came there fully acquainted with the know- 

 ledge that had been acquired before the flood ; and we cannot doubt that the 



