hich answered to the Hyades or the Pleiades;
it was merely a question in this text of the quantity of
water supplied regularly to the astronomers of a Theban
temple for their domestic purposes.

In the evening they went up on to the high terraces above the shrine, or
on to the narrow platforms which terminated the pylons, and fixing
their eyes continuously on the celestial vault above them, followed the
movements of the constellations and carefully noted down the slightest
phenomena which they observed. A portion of the chart of the heavens,
as known to Theban Egypt between the eighteenth and twelfth centuries
before our era, has survived to the present time; parts of it were
carved by the decorators on the ceilings of temples, and especially on
royal tombs. The deceased Pharaohs were identified with Osiris in a more
intimate fashion than their subjects. They represented the god even in
the most trivial details; on earth--where, after having played the part
of the beneficent Onnophris of primitive ages, they underwent the most
complete and elaborate embalming, like Osiris of the lower world; in
Hades--where they embarked side by side with the Sun-Osiris to cross the
night and to be born again at daybreak; in heaven--where they shone with
Orion-Sahu under the guardianship of Sothis, and, year by year, led the
procession of the stars. The maps of the firmament recalled to them, or
if necessary taught them, this part of their duties: they there saw
the planets and the _decani_ sail past in their boats, and the
constellations follow one another in continuous succession. The lists
annexed to the charts indicated the positions occupied each month by the
principal heavenly bodies--their risings, their culminations, and their
settings. Unfortunately, the workmen employed to execute these pictures
either did not understand much about the subject in hand, or did not
trouble themselves to copy the originals exactly: they omitted many
passages, transposed others, and made endless mistakes, which made it
impossible for us to transfer accurately to a modern map the information
possessed by the ancients.

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