154 CHRONOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 



The foregoing Tabular Arrangement, in its present imperfect con- 

 dition, will yet be found to throw light on the history of words, and 

 upon the whole subject of Philology. Take, for instance, the question 

 of the origin of the word "cow," and of the time when this word was 

 first used in England ? 



The animal bearing the name has been the companion of man from 

 the earliest historical records. In Egypt and throughout Arabia, the 

 male is universally called "thour;" in Ancient Palestine (in Hebrew) 

 " thwr ;" further north, in Ancient Greece " tayros ;" in Ancient Italy 

 "taurus;" in France "taureau," to the very margin of the Channel; 

 over which the word does not appear to have ever crossed into Eng- 

 land. Again : in Egypt and throughout Arabia, the female is univer- 

 sally called "bakar;" in Ancient Palestine (in Hebrew) "bkr;" in 

 Ancient Italy "vacca;" in France "vache;" but in like manner, this 

 second word does not appear to have entered England : as though, 

 when the two words arrived at the Channel from the South, the 

 objects in England were already supplied with names. 



Turning now to the so-called English word "cow:" which is un- 

 known in the above-named southern countries ; but which occurs in 

 Germany; in Northern Europe (in the Scandinavian countries); in 

 Persia; in Ancient Hindostan (in the Sanscrit language); and further 

 east, in China. By what route did the word reach England? and, To 

 what language did it originally belong? If we go back in history four 

 thousand years, to the Twelfth Egyptian Dynasty, we find the word 

 "cow" at that time used in Egypt. (See Bunsen, Anc. Egypt. Vocab.) 



The Egyptian measurement of time. 



Some remarks properly belonging to this head have been already 

 given, in the course of the preceding pages; but a more full explanation 

 has been reserved for this place. 



Among the various calendars devised for measuring time, the most 

 simple is the one which follows the period of three hundred and sixty- 

 five days. The fractional excess of the natural year being excluded, 

 such a calendar at once gives the number of days between two dates; 

 a source, under our own system of intercalation, of perpetual incon- 

 venience to Astronomers and Historians. 



Such a calendar, however, is not a fixed one : its initial day does 

 not always keep at the same distance from the solstices and equinoxes, 



