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

IV.] The Sentinel of the Heavenly Hosts. 13 7

Egyptians, Sirius or Sothis, the most bril-
liant of the distant suns, the flaming sentinel
to us of the fiery hosts of space. Suppose,
then, that on some particular day (such as
that of summer solstice) Sothis is on the
horizon of Memphis when the sun is eleven
degrees below it, that is, one degree below the
point of dawn. On that day Sothis will rise
heliacally, and will remain visible on the
horizon for about four minutes (while the
earth rotates through one degree), after which
it will be lost in the break of dawn. On the
anniversary of that day it will again be on the
horizon, when the earth completes her 365th
rotation ; that is, when our planet is a quarter
of a degree less advanced in the orbit, since
the full revolution takes 365] rotations.
Hence, since the earth rotates through a quarter
of a degree in a minute (of time), there will
be the difference of a minute in the corre-
sponding rising each year, and therefore of
four minutes each grand cycle. But since