Blair Collection > Celtic researches, on the origin, traditions & language, of the ancient Britons

t»y which the learned understand, periods of time whieli he
had culcuUited. I find, hy Philo Jadoeus, that the ancient
Mystagogues regarded 100 as a perleét numher. As the parts
which composed a perfect whole : or as the number ot" units
which constituted a complete series. If we regard 100 parts
as equal to a complete diurnal revolution, then 36525 parts
Vtill amount to oQo days and 6 hours: or if 100 years con-
stitute a perfecl age, agreeably to Philo's application of the
number in the case of Abraham, then o(^òQ.5 λνϋΐ be the
diurnal revolutions comprehended in that age. This I con-
sider as a more simple method of accounting for the number
of the Hennetic volumes, than by supposing a multiplication
of cycles, which must imply mack more than a true calcu-
lation of the solar period.
The Egyptians had yearn, as they are styled by the Greeks,
of 6, 4, or 3 Months. They may have divided the annual
Circle into seasons, by inscribing some of their geometiucal
figures, as the line or the triangle, or else the square,
touching at the 4 cardinal points. Still the complete circle
remained the same. Is there nothing in the old testament to
confirm tlie antiquity of this computation and the use of tlie
Epagones ì Job speaks (Chap. iii. 6.) of days joined to tlie
year, exclusive of the number of the months. The Epa-
gones appear then to have been known, out of Egypt, about
the time when Abraham settled in the land of Canaan, and
during the life of the great patriarchs. Let us consider Noali'.s
year. In the history of the deluge we have 5 successive
months consisting altogether of 150 days, or 30 days each.
I cannot conceive how^ such months could have been formed
upon any lunar observation. From the first day of the tenth
month, we have an enumeration of 6l days, together wiili
an unspecified period oftime», before the commencement of
the succeedhig year. A complete year in Noah's days could