Bind in after Table of Contents. ADDITION. IN speaking of the 12th verse of the 10th chapter of the Book of Joshua, I might have observed, that if the year be taken at 365 days, and if we suppose one day intercalated every fourth year, the meaning will come out more obviously. This one day was not admitted into the sacred, but into the astronomical, year of the Egyptians. An ancient and anonymous writer gives us the following account: In templo Ægypti Memphis, (lege Apidis Memphi) mos fuit solio regio decorari reges, qui regnabant. Ibi enim sacris initiabantur primùm, ut dicitur, Reges, satis religiosè tunicati: et Tauro, quem Apim appellant, jugum portare fas erat, et per vicum unum duci. Deducitur autem à Sacerdote Isidis in locum qui nominatur Adytos, et jurejurando adigitur, neque mensem, neque diem intercalandum, quem in festum diem immutarent, sed CCCLXV dies peracturos, sicut institutum est ab antiquis. It follows from this, that when the Priests reckoned by their sacred year, they would lose a whole day every fourth year. This day, as I have said above, was reckoned in the astronomical year; but as this was against the religious law, the Priests seem to have feigned, that during that day the course of the Sun and Moon was suspended; and thus obtained their small canicular period mentioned by Bailly. |