A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



the five days, constituting what the Egyptians them- 

 selves termed "the five days over and above the 

 year." These so-called epagomenal days were un- 

 doubtedly introduced at a very early period. Mas- 

 pero holds that they were in use before the first Thinite 

 dynasty, citing in evidence the fact that the legend of 

 Osiris explains these days as having been created by 

 the god Thot in order to permit Nuit to give birth to 

 all her children ; this expedient being necessary to over- 

 come a ban which had been pronounced against Nuit, 

 according to which she could not give birth to children 

 on any day of the year. But, of course, the five addi- 

 tional days do not suffice fully to rectify the calendar. 

 There remains the additional quarter of a day to be 

 accounted for. This, of course, amounts to a full day 

 every fourth year. We shall see that later Alexan- 

 drian science hit upon the expedient of adding a day 

 to every fourth year; an expedient which the Julian 

 calendar adopted and which still gives us our familiar 

 leap-year. But, unfortunately, the ancient Egyptian 

 failed to recognize the need of this additional day, or 

 if he did recognize it he failed to act on his knowledge, 

 and so it happened that, starting somewhere back in 

 the remote past with a new year's day that coincided 

 with the inundation of the Nile, there was a constantly 

 shifting maladjustment of calendar and seasons as time 

 went on. 



The Egyptian seasons, it should be explained, were 

 three in number: the season of the inundation, the sea- 

 son of the seed-time, and the season of the harvest; 

 each season being, of course, four months in extent. 

 Originally, as just mentioned, the season of the inun- 



