THE NOWROOSE. 
317 
may be excused, for the errors of bewildered memories, the diffi¬ 
culty of reconciling fragments, and the creations with which en¬ 
thusiastic fancy attempted to supply the defects. But to return 
to the feast of the Nowroose. It is acknowledged to have been 
celebrated from the earliest ages, in Persia, independent of what¬ 
ever religions reigned there ; whether the simple worship of the 
One Great Being, or under the successive rites of Magian, Pagan, 
or Mahomedan institutions. But the account given of its origin 
is this : •—Jem sliced, after dividing time into two kinds of years, 
civil and religious, and introducing an intercalary month to 
keep the calendar in due order with the seasons, established the 
festival in question, to commemorate the act, and to take place 
on the first day of the new solar year; which, according to 
his arrangement, was to commence at the time of the natural 
reproduction of all things that conduce to the subsistence of 
man. The calculation of the year, commonly in use at present 
in Persia, is by the moon ; which makes it some days shorter 
than our year of Europe. Each month begins and ends with 
the moon, by whose changes the religious fasts and festivals of 
their prophet are regulated. But the solar year, which was the 
division by Jemsheed, begins the moment the sun enters Aries; 
(from which time is dated the first day of the spring also,) and 
consists of twelve months, of twenty-nine, and thirty days each. 
It is at the commencement of this solar year, that the Nowroose 
is celebrated. Jemsheed fixed upon his capital, as the place of 
solemnity ; and that, probably, was the city of Balk ; it having 
been the residence of his ancestor, Kaiomurs; and afterwards 
long known as the metropolis of the early Persian monarchs. 
The feast was to continue six days. On the first, and in the 
whole assembly of his people, the king bestowed marks of his 
