236 



NOTES. 



The priests of Heliopolis, consulted by Herodotus, 

 boasted, that the first of all men, the Egyptians, had 

 invented the division of the year into twelve parts. 



*EAeyov oiAotoyiovrss atytvi, irgcorow; AlywrlovS uvtoQairuv 

 dnolvTuv effivge'fiv rov hiuvrov &vu%kx pi(>zx ^eto-oi(A,evv? ruv agsav 



lg ccvrov (Herod., Lib. 2, ed. Wessel., p. 104). We 

 think that this invention belongs no more to the 

 Egyptians, than the mode of numeration by groups 

 of five, ten, or twenty, belongs to a single people by 

 whom it has been transmitted to other nations in very 

 distant countries. 



The calendar of the Egyptians, after having been the 

 object of the learned researches of Freret, de la Nauze, 

 and Bainbridge, has been farther illustrated in our own 

 times by the labours of Mr. Ideler, who unites to a pro- 

 found knowledge of the ancient languages that of as- 

 tronomical calculations. We shall not discuss the 

 question whether different calendars, and various 

 modes of intercalation, were in use at the same time on 

 the banks of the Nile, as several learned men have as- 

 serted in their interpretation of passages of Theon, 

 Strabo, Vettius Valens, and Horapollo (De la Nauze, 

 Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscript., torn. 14, page 351 : 

 Freret, Ouvres, torn. 10, page 86; torn. 11, page 278; 

 Bainbridge, Canicularia, p. 26 ; Scaliger de Emen- 

 dat. Temp or, lib. 3, p. 196 : Gatterer, Abriss der Chro- 

 nologic, p. 233 : Id. Weltgeschichte bis Cyrus, page 

 211, 507, and 567 : Ideler, Histor. Untersuchungen, 

 p. 100 : Rode, ueber Dendera, page 43). We shall 

 confine ourselves here to a few remarks on the mova- 

 bleness of festivals. 



In Egypt and Persia, where the vague year was ip 

 use ; in Greece and in Italy, where imperfect interca- 

 lations often deranged the calendar; the festivals con- 



