SEVFFARTH — ON THE THEORY OF THE MOON's MOTIONS. 495 



ration represented in the Noachian alphabet, ended in — 3446. 

 The date of our eclipse, it is evident, harmonizes Chinese chro- 

 nology with the Septuagint, apart from 80 years (3446 = 3332-!- 

 34-l-So). The time will come when all other Chinese eclipses 

 will be once more chronologically fixed, as well as the Greek and 

 Roman ones. 



28. The oldest eclipse mentioned in history is, no doubt, that 

 observed in Tanis about the time of Menes' arrival in Egypt, 

 and about the beginning of the first Canicular and the first Apis 

 periods, namely, the lunar eclipse in — 2780, May 23, i^h. P.T., 

 U 12° E. It is known that the Apis-bull was a living emblem of 

 the moon, as Jablonskius (Panth. .r^g. iv. 4) and my Astronomia 

 -^gyptiaca (p. ico) have demonstrated. Horapollo (ii. 4, i. 10), 

 and the fact that the so-called Isis Table, the Nativity of Trajan, 

 signifies the sun by the Mnevis-bull and the moon by the Apis- 

 bull, put beyond question that Apis represented the moon. This 

 is, moreover, confirmed by the Apis periods of 25 Egyptian years ; 

 for the longitude of the moon is exactly the same after 25 vague 

 years of 365 days, i.e. after 25 Julian years, minus 6 days and 

 6 hours ; and this singular phenomenon gave rise to the Apis 

 periods, i.e. Moon periods of 25 Egyptian years, so often men- 

 tioned in Egyptian, Greek, and Roman histories. For instance, 

 in _ 2780, July 19, which was the first newyears day of the Egyp- 

 tians, on the I St day of the month called Thoth, the moon and the 

 sun stood distant from each other 180°; it was the day of the full 

 moon: and 25 years later, viz. in -2755, the full of the moon 

 again coincided with the ist day of Thoth, the newyears day. 

 The Apis, however, signified the moon not in general only, but 

 also especially an obscuration of the moon, a lunar eclipse about 

 the beginning of the first Apis period in — 2780; for the Apis 

 must always be a black bull with a white crescent-like figure on 

 his side, as archaeology reports. It would have been absurd to 

 represent the candent full moon by a black bull with a crescent- 

 shaped white sickle. Even the myth that Menes was devoured by 

 a crocodile, points us to a lunar eclipse about the time of Menes' 

 arrival in Egypt ; for Menes simply signifies the moon, like the 

 Greek MrjV^ the Hebrew meni, the Arabic mana^ our moon, 

 men-sis^ and the like ; and even the Coptic name of poppy, viz. 

 ne-fnan, signifies the flower of the moon, the German Mohn. 



