History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Vol. 1 — 23 - Vol. 01, Ch. 03: The Legendary History of Egypt, pt. 7

In directing their eyes to the celestial sphere, Thot had at the same time revealed to men the art of measuring time, and the knowledge of the future.

As he was the moon-god _par excellence_, he watched with jealous care over the divine eye which had been entrusted to him by Horus, and the thirty days during which he was engaged in conducting it through all the phases of its nocturnal life, were reckoned as a month.

Twelve of these months formed the year, a year of three hundred and sixty days, during which the earth witnessed the gradual beginning and ending of the circle of the seasons.

The Nile rose, spread over the fields, sank again into its channel; to the vicissitudes of the inundation succeeded the work of cultivation; the harvest followed the seedtime: these formed three distinct divisions of the year, each of nearly equal duration.

Thot made of them the three seasons,--that of the waters, Shaît; that of vegetation, Pirûît; that of the harvest, Shômû--each comprising four months, numbered one to four; the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months of Shaît; the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months of Pirûît; the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months of Shômû.

The twelve months completed, a new year began, whose birth was heralded by the rising of Sothis in the early days of August.

The first month of the Egyptian year thus coincided with the eighth of ours.

Thot became its patron, and gave it his name, relegating each of the others to a special protecting divinity; in this manner the third month of Shaît fell to Hathor, and was called after her; the fourth of Pirûît belonged to Ranûît or Ramûît, the lady of harvests, and derived from her its appellation of Pharmûti.

Official documents always designated the months by the ordinal number attached to them in each season, but the people gave them by preference the names of their tutelary deities, and these names, transcribed into Greek, and then into Arabic, are still used by the Christian inhabitants of Egypt, side by side with the Mussulman appellations.

One patron for each month was, however, not deemed sufficient: each month was subdivided into three decades, over which presided as many _decani_, and the days themselves were assigned to genii appointed to protect them.

A number of festivals were set apart at irregular intervals during the course of the year: festivals for the new year, festivals for the beginning of the seasons, months and decades, festivals for the dead, for the supreme gods, and for local divinities.

Every act of civil life was so closely allied to the religious life, that it could not be performed without a sacrifice or a festival.

A festival celebrated the cutting of the dykes, another the opening of the canals, a third the reaping of the first sheaf, or the carrying of the grain; a crop gathered or stored without a festival to implore the blessing of the gods, would have been an act of sacrilege and fraught with disaster.

The first year of three hundred and sixty days, regulated by the revolutions of the moon, did not long meet the needs of the Egyptian people; it did not correspond with the length of the solar year, for it fell short of it by five and a quarter days, and this deficit, accumulating from twelvemonth to twelvemonth, caused such a serious difference between the calendar reckoning and the natural seasons, that it soon had to be corrected.

They intercalated, therefore, after the twelfth month of each year and before the first day of the ensuing year, five epagomenal days, which they termed the "five days over and above the year."

[*] * There appears to be a tendency among Egyptologists now to doubt the existence, under the Ancient Empire, of the five epagomenal days, and as a fact they are nowhere to be found expressly mentioned; but we know that the five gods of the Osirian cycle were born during the epagomenal day (cf.

p. 247 of this History), and the allusions to the Osirian legend which are met with in the Pyramid texts, prove that the days were added long before the time when those inscriptions were cut.

As the wording of the texts often comes down from prehistoric times, it is most likely that the invention of the epagomenal days is anterior to the first Thinite and Memphite dynasties.

The legend of Osiris relates that Thot created them in order to permit Nûît to give birth to all her children.

These days constituted, at the end of the "great year," a "little month," which considerably lessened the difference between the solar and lunar computation, but did not entirely do away with it, and the six hours and a few minutes of which the Egyptians had not taken count gradually became the source of fresh perplexities.

They at length amounted to a whole day, which needed to be added every four years to the regular three hundred and sixty days, a fact which was unfortunately overlooked.

The difficulty, at first only slight, which this caused in public life, increased with time, and ended by disturbing the harmony between the order of the calendar and that of natural phenomena: at the end of a hundred and twenty years, the legal year had gained a whole month on the actual year, and the 1st of Thot anticipated the heliacal rising of Sothis by thirty days, instead of coinciding with it as it ought.

The astronomers of the Græco-Roman period, after a retrospective examination of all the past history of their country, discovered a very ingenious theory for obviating this unfortunate discrepancy.

If the omission of six hours annually entailed the loss of one day every four years, the time would come, after three hundred and sixty-five times four years, when the deficit would amount to an entire year, and when, in consequence, fourteen hundred and sixty whole years would exactly equal fourteen hundred and sixty-one incomplete years.

The agreement of the two years, which had been disturbed by the force of circumstances, was re-established of itself after rather more than fourteen and a half centuries: the opening of the civil year became identical with the beginning of the astronomical year, and this again coincided with the heliacal rising of Sirius, and therefore with the official date of the inundation.

To the Egyptians of Pharaonic times, this simple and eminently practical method was unknown: by means of it hundreds of generations, who suffered endless troubles from the recurring difference between an uncertain and a fixed year, might have consoled themselves with the satisfaction of knowing that a day would come when one of their descendants would, for once in his life, see both years coincide with mathematical accuracy, and the seasons appear at their normal times.

The Egyptian year might be compared to a watch which loses a definite number of minutes daily.

The owner does not take the trouble to calculate a cycle in which the total of minutes lost will bring the watch round to the correct time: he bears with the irregularity as long as his affairs do not suffer by it; but when it causes him inconvenience, he alters the hands to the right hour, and repeats this operation each time he finds it necessary, without being guided by a fixed rule.

In like manner the Egyptian year fell into hopeless confusion with regard to the seasons, the discrepancy continually increasing, until the difference became so great, that the king or the priests had to adjust the two by a process similar to that employed in the case of the watch.

The days, moreover, had each their special virtues, which it was necessary for man to know if he wished to profit by the advantages, or to escape the perils which they possessed for him.

There was not one among them that did not recall some incident of the divine wars, and had not witnessed a battle between the partisans of Sit and those of Osiris or Râ; the victories or the disasters which they had chronicled had as it were stamped them with good or bad luck, and for that reason they remained for ever auspicious or the reverse.

It was on the 17th of Athyr that Typhon had enticed his brother to come to him, and had murdered him in the middle of a banquet.

Every year, on this day, the tragedy that had taken place in the earthly abode of the god seemed to be repeated afresh in the heights of heaven.

Just as at the moment of the death of Osiris, the powers of good were at their weakest, and the sovereignty of evil everywhere prevailed, so the whole of Nature, abandoned to the powers of darkness, became inimical to man.

Whatever he undertook on that day issued in failure.

If he went out to walk by the river-side, a crocodile would attack him, as the crocodile sent by Sît had attacked Osiris.

If he set out on a journey, it was a last farewell which he bade to his family and friends: death would meet him by the way.

To escape this fatality, he must shut himself up at home, and wait in inaction until the hours of danger had passed and the sun of the ensuing day had put the evil one to flight.

[*] * On the 20th of Thot no work was to be done, no oxen killed, no stranger received.

On the 22nd no fish might be eaten, no oil lamp was to be lighted.

On the 23rd "put no incense on the fire, nor kill big cattle, nor goats, nor ducks; eat of no goose, nor of that which has lived."

On the 26th "do absolutely nothing on this day," and the same advice is found on the 7th of Paophi, on the 18th, on the 26th, on the 27th, and more than thirty times in the remainder of the Sallier Calendar.

On the 30th of Mechir it is forbidden to speak aloud to any one.

It was to his interest to know these adverse influences; and who would have known them all, had not Thot pointed them out and marked them in his calendars?

One of these, long fragments of which have come down to us, indicated briefly the character of each day, the gods who presided over it, the perils which accompanied their patronage, or the good fortune which might be expected of them.

The details of it are not always intelligible to us, as we are still ignorant of many of the episodes in the life of Osiris.

The Egyptians were acquainted with the matter from childhood, and were guided with sufficient exactitude by these indications.

The hours of the night were all inauspicious; those of the day were divided into three "seasons" of four hours each, of which some were lucky, while others were invariably of ill omen.

"The 4th of Tybi: _good, good, good_.

Whatsoever thou seest on this day will be fortunate.

Whosoever is born on this day, will die more advanced in years than any of his family; he will attain to a greater age than his father.

The 5th of Tybi: _inimical, inimical, inimical_.

This is the day on which the goddess Sokhîfc, mistress of the double white Palace, burnt the chiefs when they raised an insurrection, came forth, and manifested themselves.

Offerings of bread to Shû, Phtah, Thot: burn incense to Râ, and to the gods who are his followers, to Phtah, Thot, Hû-Sû, on this day.

Whatsoever thou seest on this day will be fortunate.

The 6th of Tybi: _good, good, good_.

Whatsoever thou seest on this day will be fortunate.

The 7th of Tybi: _inimical, inimical, inimical_.

Do not join thyself to a woman in the presence of the Eye of Horus.

Beware of letting the fire go out which is in thy house.

The 8th of Tybi: _good, good, good_.

Whatsoever thou seest with thine eye this day, the Ennead of the gods will grant to thee: the sick will recover.

The 9th of Tybi: _good, good, good_.

The gods cry out for joy at noon this day.

Bring offerings of festal cakes and of fresh bread, which rejoice the heart of the gods and of the manes.

The 10th of Tybi: _inimical, inimical, mimical_.

Do not set fire to weeds on this day: it is the day on which the god Sap-hôû set fire to the land of Btito.

The 11th of Tybi: _inimical, inimical, inimical_.

Do not draw nigh to any flame on this day, for Râ entered the flames to strike all his enemies, and whosoever draws nigh to them on this day, it shall not be well with him during his whole life.

The 12th of Tybi: _inimical, inimical, inimical_.

See that thou beholdest not a rat on this day, nor approachest any rat within thy house: it is the day wherein Sokhît gave forth the decrees."

In these cases a little watchfulness or exercise of memory sufficed to put a man on his guard against evil omens; but in many circumstances all the vigilance in the world would not protect him, and the fatality of the day would overtake him, without his being able to do ought to avert it.

No man can at will place the day of his birth at a favourable time; he must accept it as it occurs, and yet it exercises a decisive influence on the manner of his death.

According as he enters the world on the 4th, 5th, or 6th of Paophi, he either dies of marsh fever, of love, or of drunkenness.

The child of the 23rd perishes by the jaws of a crocodile: that of the 27th is bitten and dies by a serpent.

On the other hand, the fortunate man whose birthday falls on the 9th or the 29th lives to an extreme old age, and passes away peacefully, respected by all.

[Illustration: 304. jpg THE GODS FIGHTING FOE THE MAGICIAN WHO HAS INVOKED THEM.

1] 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the tracing by Golbnischeff, _Die Metternich-Stele_, pi, iii.

14. Thot, having pointed out the evil to men, gave to them at the same time the remedy.

The magical arts of which he was the repository, made him virtual master of the other gods.

He knew their mystic names, their secret weaknesses, the kind of peril they most feared, the ceremonies which subdued them to his will, the prayers which they could not refuse to grant under pain of misfortune or death.

His wisdom, transmitted to his worshippers, assured to them the same authority which he exercised upon those in heaven, on earth, or in the nether world.

The magicians instructed in his school had, like the god, control of the words and sounds which, emitted at the favourable moment with the "correct voice," would evoke the most formidable deities from beyond the confines of the universe: they could bind and loose at will Osiris, Sit, Anubis, even Thot himself; they could send them forth, and recall them, or constrain them to work and fight for them.

The extent of their power exposed the magicians to terrible temptations; they were often led to use it to the detriment of others, to satisfy their spite, or to gratify their grosser appetites.

Many, moreover, made a gain of their knowledge, putting it at the service of the ignorant who would pay for it.

When they were asked to plague or get rid of an enemy, they had a hundred different ways of suddenly surrounding him without his suspecting it: they tormented him with deceptive or terrifying dreams; they harassed him with apparitions and mysterious voices; they gave him as a prey to sicknesses, to wandering spectres, who entered into him and slowly consumed him.

They constrained, even at a distance, the wills of men; they caused women to be the victims of infatuations, to forsake those they had loved, and to love those they had previously detested.

In order to compose an irresistible charm, they merely required a little blood from a person, a few nail-parings, some hair, or a scrap of linen which he had worn, and which, from contact with his skin, had become impregnated with his personality.

Portions of these were incorporated with the wax of a doll which they modelled, and clothed to resemble their victim; thenceforward all the inflictions to which the image was subjected were experienced by the original; he was consumed with fever when his effigy was exposed to the fire, he was wounded when the figure was pierced by a knife.

The Pharaohs themselves had no immunity from these spells.

[*]