CHAP. XI. TFIE QUARTER DAY. 17 



of 365^ days, or which, in other words, in- 

 tercalated an additional day every fourth year. 

 For the Egyptians, finding by observation that 

 1460 Sothic were equal to 14(il solar years, the 

 seasons having in that time passed through every 

 part of the year, and returned again to the same 

 point, established this as a standard for adjusting 

 their calendar, under the name of the Sothic 

 period ; and though for ordinary purposes, as the 

 dates of their Kings and other events, they con- 

 tinued to use the solar or vague year of 365 days, 

 every calculation could thus be corrected, by com- 

 paring the time of this last with that of the Sothic 

 or sidereal year. The sacred was the same as the 

 solar or vague year ; and an ancient author, cited 

 by Jablonski*, asserts that the Egyptian Kings 

 took an oath in the adytum that they would not 

 intercalate any month or day, but that the sacred 

 year of 365 days should remain as instituted in an- 

 cient times. If this be true, it argues that interca- 

 lation of the additional day was coeval with the era 

 of the Pharaohs, since the prohibition could only 

 have been directed against this innovation. But 

 without pretending to give a decided opinion re- 

 specting the period of its first introduction, I may 

 observe, that the positive testimony of Diodorust 

 shows it to have been in use before the Roman con- 

 quest, that historian having lived, and, as he says, 

 ** visited Egypt, under Ptolemy Neus Dionysus"! ; 



* Jablonski, Panth. Egypt, lib. iv. c. 2. p. 210. 

 f Diodor. i. 50. % Dioclor. i. 44. 



VOL. I. — Second Series. C 



