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

IV.] The Month and the Year. 117

days of the Ptolemies, but never, apparent!}7,
while a native monarch reigned. On the first
day was celebrated the " conception of the
moon," when that orb was on the meridian at
noon (while still invisible to the observer)—a
refinement unknown to our kalendar; on the
second day its birth, or first appearance, and
so on throughout the month of thirty days.
During the first month, therefore, the lunar
intervals would of course correspond more or
less precisely with the solar days. But
whereas the two sets would grow progressively
asunder, the lunar names remained affixed to
the same solar days. Thus the first day of
each solar month was called the conception of
the moon, and the second new moon, although
neither phenomenon might have taken place
anywhere near the time—a method of expres-
sion necessitating, it would seem, a double
form of register, and simple enough to those
who held the clue, but to a stranger hopelessly
misleading.