Adams, Walter M.: The house of the hidden places: a clue to the creed of early Egypt from Egyptian sources (London, 1895)

120 The Mystery of the Heavens. [Ch.

in regard to the sun, but is imperceptible
when compared with the distance of the
stars. By the method of reckoning there-
fore, above described, the solar or apparent
days are harmonized with the number of earth's
true rotations. This being the principle, every
year admitted of division into two portions,
one consisting of an orbit of three hundred
and sixty days, of which the lunar year fell
short by the same number of days as the
solar year exceeded it; the other, that of the
sacred interval or " panegyric," as Dr. Brugsch
applies the term, consisting of six days, each
being a festival of special sanctity.

That orbit again of three hundred and sixty
days, was itself divided not only into twelve
equal solar months, but also into three equal
seasons (each of one hundred and twenty days),
corresponding, as Dr. Brugsch has shown, to the
three great physical divisions of the Egyptian
year—the season of the inundation ("Se"),
commencing with the rise of the Nile, about