18 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. 



and the ignorance of Herodotus on the subject, 

 who speaks * of the Egyptian year of 365 days 

 having the effect of keeping the seasons in their 

 proper places, is readily accounted for by the fact 

 of the Egyptians only using this solar year for 

 their ordinary calculations, the knowledge of the 

 sidereal one being confined to the priests. For it 

 is more reasonable to suppose the father of history 

 to be mistaken in this, as he is on so many points 

 relating to Egypt, than that so important a disco- 

 very, which had escaped them whilst their astro- 

 nomical skill was at its zenith, during the flourish- 

 ing period of the Pharaohs, should be made at a 

 time when "the wisdom" of Egypt had already 

 declined, and, above all, during the confusion 

 consequent upon the occupation of the country 

 by the Persians. Nor does the circumstance of 

 the Hebrews neglecting to adopt the Sothic year 

 argue that it was introduced subsequently to 

 the Exodus and the age of Moses : the Arabs, 

 who conquered Egypt long after its universal 

 adoption, persisted and still persist in the use 

 of their imperfect lunar months ; as some Euro- 

 peans are indifferent to the introduction of the 

 Gregorian calendar ; but both these are not the 

 less known, because unadopted, and no argument 

 can fairly be derived from similar omissions. I 

 do not, however, assert that the Sothic year was 

 invented before the time of Moses, and it will, pro- 

 bably, long remain uncertain when the Egyptians 

 first introduced so important an innovation. 



* Herodot. ii. 4. 



