37- THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



risings, or to the increase and decrease of the 

 Moon, to tlie cycles of the Sun, to the diurnal and 

 nocturnal hemispheres, or to the river." Plutarch* 

 also gives one explanation of the history of Isis 

 and Osiris, taken from the phaenomena of eclipses. 



The great importance attached to Sothis was 

 owing to the peculiar period of the year when the 

 heliacal rising of that star took place ; and the in- 

 fluence it was supposed to exercise upon the com- 

 mencement of the inundation, which was typified 

 by Osiris, very naturally led the Egyptians to con- 

 nect it with Isis. 



I have already noticed, in a former work, the 

 use made of this star in their astronomical calcu- 

 lations, in speaking of the two Egyptian years t ; 

 from which I shall extract a few observations. 

 " The conquest of Egypt by tlie Romans had 

 acquainted that people with the existence of the 

 arch, and its utility as a substitute for wood, to 

 which it probably owed its invention; nor can any 

 one for a moment imagine tliat the vanity of that 

 nation would have allowed to remain concealed 

 the name of its inventor, had he been a Roman. 

 The same remark applies to the intercalated year ; 

 and surely the Romans were at no time celebrated 

 for astronomical knowledge. The Roman Calendar 

 was, indeed, put in order by Julius Caesar, but with 

 the assistance of Sosigenes, an Egyptian ; who, to 

 supply the defect of 67 days, that had been lost 

 through the inattention of the Pontifices, and in 



* Plut. (le Is. s. 44. 



•j- Materia Hierog. Appendix, No. 1. 



