used hy the Ancient Egyptians. 177 



retained through the influence of custom after it had become a wandering one. 

 Those names indicate physical characters, which the months of the wandering 

 year could only have between the limits 1800 and 1760 before our era. Within 

 these limits the reformation of the calendar must have taken place ; and it will 

 be the object of the following researches to establish the precise year, in which 

 the new system was introduced. 



III. I have already intimated that I have been directed in this inquiry by a 

 passage in Tacitus. It is the twenty-eighth chapter of the sixth book of his 

 Annals ; and before I go further, I shall give a translation of the material part 

 of this chapter. 



" In the consulship of PauUus Fabius and Lucius Vitellius, after a long 

 course of ages a phoenix arrived in Egypt, and caused much conversation 

 respecting it among the most learned, both of the natives and of the Greeks. I 

 will state those facts, about which there is an agreement, as well as some others 

 that are doubtful, but not undeserving of being known. Those who have 

 described its appearance are agreed that it is consecrated to the sun, and in face 

 and plumage unlike to other birds. Different accounts are given respecting the 

 number of years that it lives. The most common statement is 500 years. Some 

 say that the interval is 1461 years ; and that former birds flew into the city of 

 Heliopolis (attended by great numbers of other fowls, which were astonished at 

 the strange appearance) first in the reign of Sesostris, afterwards in that of 

 Amasis, and next in the reign of Ptolemy, the third Macedonian sovereign 

 (Ptolemao qui ex Macedonibus tertius regnavit). But the chronology is cer- 

 tainly obscure. Between Ptolemy and Tiberius were less than 250 years. On 

 this account, some have supposed that this last was not a real phoenix ; that it 

 did not come 'from the land of Arabia, nor do any of those things which the old 

 tradition has recorded." Then, after describing the manner in which the 

 phoenix provides itself with a successor, he concludes : " These things are un- 

 certain, and in part fabulous ; but there is no doubt that this bird is sometimes 

 seen in Egypt."* 



• PauUo Fabio, L. Vitellio Coss. post longum saeculorum ambitum, avis phcenix in iEgyptum 



venit, prsebuitque materiem doctissimis indigenarum et Graecorum, multa super eo miraculo dis- 



serendi : de quibus congruunt, et plura ambigua, sed cognitu non absurda, promere libet. Sacrum 



soli id animal, et ore ac distinctu pinnarum a ceteris avibus diversum, consentiunt qui formam ejus 



VOL. XVIII. Z 



