376 THE AXCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIIL 



ted the intercalary day every 130 years in the Sothic 

 system, which we might expect from the usual 

 accuracy of their calculations, or were contented 

 with the approximation of the quarter day ; for 

 though the Copts do not reject this increase, and 

 are satisfied with the regular intercalation of one 

 day every fourth year, this might have been from 

 their finding it perplexing, and that additional ac- 

 curacy might have been rejected in later times, 

 when Christianity took the place of the Pagan in- 

 stitutions of Egypt. If, however, their solar year 

 exactly coincided with the Sothic, every 1460 

 years, it is evident that neither the ancient Egyp- 

 tians, nor the Copts, ever rejected the intercalary 

 day ; whence these, like the common civil years, 

 went forward at the increasing ratio of one day in 

 130 or 131 years. 



** The point, however, in question is, I think, 

 sufficiently clear, — that the intercalary day every 

 fourth year was of Egyptian origin, and used by the 

 priests long before the conquest of Egypt by the 

 Romans. The name of ' the Sothic period ' would 

 alone prove this ; and the particularly minute ob- 

 servations made by the priests respecting the future 

 state of their river, from prognostics drawn from 

 the aspect of the Star at rising, and the anxiety with 

 which they expected its first appearance, are well 

 known. Nor is at all compatible with reason to 

 suppose that all this was of a late time, and owed its 

 origin to the conquest of the country by the Romans. 

 The rise of the Nile had ahcm/s been looked upon 

 as the moment of rejoicing ; the heliacal rising of 



