show what might also have happened about 618 B.C. if a reformer of the calendar (and one especially of conservative tendencies) appeared upon the scene, who believed that the ancient sign for the inundation-tetramene was the water sign, and that the ancient name was Thoth. Finding the cycle beginning in 1728 B.C. with the signs as shown above—
| 618 B.C. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Thoth |  |  |
| Phaophi | ||
| Athyr | ||
| Choiach | ||
| Tybi | |  |
| Menchir | ||
| Phamenoth | ||
| Pharmuti | ||
| Pachons | |  |
| Payni | ||
| Epiphi | ||
| Mesori |
when starting fresh, he would seize the opportunity of effecting a change, not only by dealing with a tetramene, but he would change the names of the tetramenes allocated to the signs; as Krall remarks, it was almost merely a question of a change of the sign! It really was more, because the new tetramene began with the flood.
Assuming this, we can see exactly what was done in 238 B.C., i.e., about 380 years later. We have seen that the 380 years is made up of
- 5 Epacts
- 30 Mesori
- 30 Epiphi
- 30 Payni
- —
- 95 × 4 = 380
—the heliacal rising of Sirius occurring on 1 Payni, having swept backwards along the months in the manner already explained. We had, to continue the diagrammatic treatment—
| 238 B.C. | ||
| Pachons | | |
| Payni | ||
| Epiphi | ||
| Mesori | ||
| Thoth | | |
| Phaophi | ||
| Athyr | ||
| Choiach | ||
| &c. |
To sum up, so far as we have gone, we have the three inscriptions at Philæ, Elephantine and the still more ancient one of Pepi (?), indicating on the simple system we have suggested beginnings of Sothic cycles on the 1st Thoth about the years
| 270 | |
| 1728 | B.C. |
| 3192 |
On the other hand, we have the decree of Canopus, giving us by exactly the same system a local revision of the calendar about 600 B.C. I say about 600 B.C. because it must be remembered that a difference of 2½ days in the phenomena observed will make a difference of 10 years in the date, and we do not know in what part of the valley the revision took place, and therefore at what precise time in relation to the heliacal rising the Nile-rise was observed.