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. 
a^Pici, AiyvTrriovf 
UTpavruv e 
llevgesiv Tov eviuV7ov 
sxx fjis^sx ^cia'XiAev9Vi ruv a^sav 
k civro)> (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 PAcad. des Inscript., tom. 14, page 351 : 
Freret, Ouvres, tom. 10, page 86; tom. 11, page 278; 
Bainbridge, Canicularia, p. 26 ; Scaliger de Emen- 
dat. Temper, lib. 3, p. 196 : Gatterer, Abriss der Chro- 
nologie, 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 in 
use; in Greece and in Italy, where imperfect interca- 
lations often deranged the calendar ; the festivals con- 
