NOTES. 



Egypt # . I here insert an extract of a letter, which 

 he has lately addressed to me. 



« ### J have also recognised in your memoir on 

 the division of time among the Mexican nations com- 

 pared with those of Asia some very striking analogies 

 between the Tolteck calendar and institutions observed 

 on the banks of the Nile. Among these analogies there 

 is one, which is worthy of attention. It is the use of 

 the vague year of 365 days, composed of equal months 

 and of five complementary days, equally employed at 

 Thebes and Mexico, a distance of 3000 leagues. It 

 is true, that the Egyptians had no intercalation, while 

 the Mexicans intercalated 13 days every 52 years. Still 

 farther, intercalation was proscribed in Egypt to such 

 a point, that the kings swore on their accession, never 

 to permit it to be employed during their reign. Not- 

 withstanding this difference, we find a very striking 

 agreement in the length of the duration of the solar 

 year. In reality the intercalation of the Mexicans, 

 being thirteen days on each cycle of fifty-two years, 

 comes to the same thing as that of the Julian Calendar, 

 which is one day in four years ; and consequently sup- 

 poses the duration of the year to be 365 days six hours . 

 Now such was the length of the year among the Egyp- 

 tians, since the sothic period was at once 1460 solar 

 years, and 1461 vague years; which was in some sort 

 the intercalation of a whole year of 375 days every 



* See the interesting memoirs of Mr. Jomard^ on the Lake 

 Moeris compared with the lake of Fayoum, on Syene and the cata- 

 racts, on the island of Elephantina, on Ombos and its environs, and on 

 the antiquities of Edfou and Hermontgis, making a part of the Descrip- 

 tion of ancient and modern Egypt, for which we are indebted to the mu 

 nificence of the French government. 



