The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-08-01
aHaerspt. yHttltigeHfer,
Ours.EgyptIan Year.

:. The division of the year into three
hundred and sixsy-fve days and'a
quarter comes to US from the Egyp-
tians.~ So far as history reaches back
into the darkness Of the early ages we
are led to believe that the dusky
brown people by the banks Of the
Nile were the first to study the mo-
tions Of the sun and stars and make
them the measure of time. And some
recent discoveries in Egypt, by care
full students, seem to show the way in
which the early astronomers were en-
abled to count the days In the solar
year. The great temples on the Nile
were built with a long entrance of
columns leading from the river to the
interior shrine-a kind Of tunnel
sometimes it was lined with sphines
or huge granite figures. Its mouth
was turnrd toward a certain part of
the Heavens where the light of the
setting sun could enter it only once a
year. It was either at the summer
solstice, when the sun was farthest in
the north, or at some other periodic
position Of sun or star.
We may imagine the Egyptian as
tronomer watching in the inner shrine
for the opening of the new year. The
long line of columns served as tele-
scope by which he could catch the
first beam of the setting sun. Sud-
denly the red light would fash through
the tunnel up to the Holy of Holes
the moment it reached the shrine the
philosopher would mark the hour, and
know that another year had begun.
From that point in time he could
count day after day until, when the
three hundred and si1ty-Rve days had
passed, once more the red beam Of
light streamed into tho tunnel, and
another year had passed away. In
this way itssseems probablethats our
days were FIRST counted and divided. {
; Other nations, and even the Greeks
and Romans, used the moon as their
guide, and divided the year into lunar
months. But it was found, as time
passed on, that great Irregularities
crept in; the months no longer cor
respond to the seasons April became
June, and the autumn months winter.
The Egyptian sun-year was then gen.
orally adopted. But even this was
discarded and altered by the ignorance
Of the Roman priests; and at last Ju-.
Illus Cesar, who was fond Of astrono-
my, resolved to correct the calendar; /;
it is his year that we now use, and to
his friend, the Egyptian Sosigenes,
we owe our division of time. Astron-
omy was favorite study with the cul-
tivated Romans, and from Egyptian
Alexandria, the scientific center Of
the time, they drew their chief mas
ters and books on the stars. Caesar
fixed upon the 1st of January as the
beginning of his year-a season OF
feasting and joy with the Egyptians
and all modern society.
Another mode of :; calculating the
days Of the year in Egypt was by the
rising of the, dog star, Sirius. This
was known as the Sothic system, and
is another proof Of the careful study
the Egyptians gave to the starry skies.
II is suggested that the pyramids were
built under the guidance of the as
tronomers, and that many of the
smaller temples were directed toward
some particular star. But is proba-
BILE, as modern research seems to show,
that the sun or Ra, as it was called in
Egyptian, was in the most civilized
period the chief deity, and it's revolu-
tions the only measure of time. The
Pharaohs claimed, like the Incas. that
they were the children Of the sun on
the cartouches the sun stands circle
at the top, and goose, the symbol of
AN offspring or son, below it. Ra wa.
the parent Of the Rameses, the chief
Egyptian conquerors and builders,
and their enormous statues still guard
the banks of the Nile. From the
Egyptian Ra have learned to divide
time, and the New Years festivities
and the more practical separation Of
months and days we owe to the active
astronomers on the banks of the Nile.
Eugene Laurence IN Harper,s Week.
lu.