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, Shait; that
of vegetation, Piruit; that of the harvest, Shomu--each comprising
four months, numbered one to four; the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months of
Shait; the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months of Piruit; the 1st, 2nd, 3rd,
and 4th months of Shomu. 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 Shait fell to Hathor, and was called after her; the
fourth of Piruit belonged to Ranuit or Ramuit, the lady of harvests, and
derived from her its appellation of Pharmuti. 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