CHAP. XI. THE OLD EGYPTIAN YEAR. 13 



suffered to depend on the vague length of a solar 

 revolution, was thus annually brought round to a 

 fixed period. 



It is highly probable that the Egyptians, in their 

 infancy as a nation, divided their year into twelve 

 lunar months*; the twenty-eight years of Osiris's 

 reign being derived, as Plutarch observes t, from the 

 number of days the moon takes to perform her course 

 round the earth ; and it is worthy of remark that the 

 hieroglyphic signifying "month" was represented 

 by the crescent of the moon, as is abundantly proved 

 from the sculptures and the authority of HorapoUo. 

 From this we also derive another very important 

 conclusion ; that the use of hieroglyphics was of a 

 far more remote date than is generally supposed, 

 since they existed previous to the adoption of solar 

 months. 



The substitution of solar for lunar months 

 was the earliest change in the Egyptian year. It 

 was then made to consist of twelve months of 

 thirty days each, making a total of 360 dayst : but 

 as it was soon discovered that tlie seasons were 

 disturbed, and no longer corresponded to the same 

 months, five additional days were introduced at 

 the end of the last month, Mesore, in order to 



* The moon's revolution round the earth is evidently the origin of 

 this division of the year into months. The (xernian monat signifies 

 both moon and month, from which our own w'ords are derived ; tlie 

 Greek /(i/r and /i»/i''/, a 'month' and the 'moon,' the Latin mensis, and 

 the Sanscrit mas, 'month,' mas or masa, 'moon,' are from the same 

 origin. Vide Pint. Tim. p. 498. Transl. Taylor. 



t Pint, de Is. s. 1-2. 



If. Tlie 360 cu|js filled daily with milk at the tomb of Osiris at 

 I'iiike, appear to show that the year once consisted of 360 days. Dio- 

 dor. i. 22, 



