It is also worthy of note that the feast of the "Great Conflagration" took place very near the Spring Equinox.

Let us dwell for a moment on the Edfû inscriptions to see if we can learn from them whether or not they bear out the views brought forward with regard to this reconstruction.

As we have seen, it is now acknowledged that the temple inscriptions at Edfû (which are stated to have been cut between 117 and 81 B.C.[81]) are based upon the fixed year of Tanis; hence we should expect that the rising of Sirius would be referred to on 1 Payni, and this is so. But here, as in the other temples, we get double dates referring to the old calendars, and we find the "wounding of Set" referred to on the 1st Epiphi and the rising of Sirius referred to under 1 Mesori. Now this means, if the old vague year is referred to, as it most probably is, that

had elapsed since the beginning of a Sothic cycle, when the calendar coincidences were determined, which were afterwards inscribed on the temple walls. We have, then, 140 years to subtract from the beginning of the cycle in 270 B.C. This gives us 130 B.C., and it will be seen that this agrees as closely as can be expected with my view, whereas the inscription has no meaning at all if we take the date given by Censorinus.

I quote from Krall[82] another inscription common to Edfû and Esne, which seems to have astronomical significance.

"1. Phamenoth. Festival of the suspension of the sky by Ptah, by the side of the god Harschaf, the master of Heracleopolis Magna (Al). Festival of Ptah. Feast of the suspension of the sky (Es).

"Under the 1st Phamenoth, Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride, c. 43, b, notices the ἔμβασις Ὀσίριδος εἰς τὴν σελὴνην. These are festivals connected with the celebration of the Winter Solstice, and the filling of the Uza-eye on the 30th Menchir. Perhaps the old year, which the Egyptians introduced into the Nile valley at the time of their immigration, and which had only 360 days, commenced with the Winter Solstice. Thus we should have in the 'festival of the suspension of the sky,' by the ancient god Ptah—venerated as creator of the world—a remnant of the time when the Winter Solstice ... marked the beginning of the year, and also the creation."

The reconstruction of the calendar naturally enhanced the importance of the month Pachons; this comes out very clearly from the inscriptions translated by Brugsch. On this point Krall remarks:—

"It is, therefore, quite right that the month Pachons, which took the place of the old Thoth by the decree of Tanis, should play a prominent part in the feast-calendars of the days of the Ptolemies, and the first period of the Empire in general, but especially in the Edfû calendar, which refers to the Tanitic year. The first five days of Pachons are dedicated in our calendar to the celebration of the subjection of the enemies by Horus; we at once remember the above-mentioned (p. 7) record of Edfû of the nature of a mythological calendar, describing the advent of the Nile flood. On the 6th of Pachons—remember the great importance of the sixes in the Ptolemæan records—the solstice is then celebrated. The Uza-eye is then filled, a mythical act which we have in another place referred to the celebration of the solstice, and 'everything is performed which is ordained' in the book 'on the Divine Birth.'"